Spira: The Eternal Discord
by Zeshin-kun
Summary: Shuyin has returned to Spira once more. This time, it appears not even he's the culprit behind this. Who then is responsible for resurrecting the shadow that threatened to destroy Spira? ShuyinLenne TidusYuna
1. Resurrection

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **Hello, and welcome to the next chapter of Spira's history. This fanfiction is an AU Alternate Universe fanfiction. This means that things that didn't happen within the original storyline could. Of course, there are only two reasons I made this an AU. One, this will be incorporating the Shuyin from my earlier fanfiction, Eternal Love. Therefore, characters from the fanfiction may make reappearances, either in person, or as conversational material. Two, I am not a fan of resurrecting Shuyin again and the only way to cheat myself was to call this an AU. I just figured Shuyin needed to set a few things straight with YRP and a few others.

Moving along, this fanfiction will include the perspectives of multiple characters, all told in the first person. Therefore, if you notice, under the title of each chapter, there will be a name. The name written is the person who's telling the story.

Thank you for your time and enjoy the fanfiction!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Prologue: Resurrection**

Shuyin

Darkness surrounded Lenne and I and I knew the end had come. My time on Spira was over and, short-lived as it was, I had to accept my death and the deaths I failed to prevent. It was only right that I fade like all deceased should…

I felt a presence all around me. It was cold and damp, something I wouldn't have ever expected to experience again, but yet I was. Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw a single pyrefly float past me, lighting up my surroundings to a certain extent. I wasn't in the Farplane anymore. I was underwater. Quickly, I looked around and confirmed that I was indeed in a body of water, though which I still wasn't sure of. The warmth I felt from the surface lured me toward it and I broke through to take my first breath in centuries. I was breathing. I was alive…

Was it all just a nightmare? Did I never actually die? Did I never lose all my friends? What was happening? Yes, it had to have been an illusion. It was the only way to explain why I wasn't a large collection of pyreflies, haunting a cave and trying to rid Spira of its suffering. The sun's warmth soothed me and I leaned back in the water to soak in more of this life I thought I'd lost. I remembered this climate. It was only found on two places on all of Spira: Kilika… and Besaid. Perhaps that's when this dream of mine occurred. My friends were probably wondering where I was by now. We'd taken a break from the war with Bevelle to relax on the beautiful beaches of Besaid. Well, if I'd been gone long, they'd worry about me. I wouldn't want that.

I moved back into a suitable swimming position and swam back to shore. Taking my first steps on land, I noticed the beach was rather empty. Did they actually go back to the hotel without me? I expected that from a guy like Rothel, but Kirin and Lenne would never budge an inch if I didn't return. Those two always worried too much about me. Well, at least the Al Bhed airship was still around. Maybe Rothel convinced those two that I was old enough to take care of myself. Ju obviously would go with Kirin and Damu was probably in that airship, chatting it up with Akoji and Pally. Maybe I should have a look see.

I jogged my way over to the red airship and knocked on the hull, "Hey, Damu! You in there?" No one answered so I guessed that they all went to hang out at the hotel. I stretched and ran back, noticing a few broken pillars as I went. Was it always like that? Deciding to ignore it, I continued toward the villa. When I got there, I knew something didn't look right. Instead of large hotels, I found a bunch of tents and some building in the background. I must have taken a wrong turn…

"Tidus! Hiya!" Somebody called out. Maybe I hadn't taken a wrong turn?

"Oh, hey! Uh, do I know you?" I asked, realizing too late that he could have easily been one of my millions of fans.

"Tidus? Are you okay? You seem a little off, ya." He asked me.

I nodded slightly, "Yea, I think I had a little too much sun or something. My mind's a little fuzzy, but can you point me to where I'm staying?"

The man looked at me strangely, but decided I was just having a seriously awful day and pointed over to one of the tents nearby. I said my thanks and hurried over. Lenne would never let me live this down. I mean, first I'm gone for who knows how long, then I completely forget where we were staying. Although, weren't we staying at a hotel? Did we decide to camp out? Wow, if that was the case, that adds another thing I forgot. Stupid dreams…

Anyway, I hurried to the tent and pushed aside the beads that made up the door. "Hey Lenne. I'm sorry I was gone for so long and…" I started to say, stopping myself once I saw who it was I was speaking to. Lying on the small bed wasn't my Lenne. No, this summoner I knew from what I thought was a nightmare.

"Yuna! Are you up?" I heard from afar. The voice was impossible. It sounded almost exactly like mine.

I moved out of the tent to look at the approaching man and stared with horrified wide eyes. "You… But… You're me…" I muttered, continuing to stare.

He must have understood exactly where I was coming from because he gaped right back, looking me from head to toe. For a few minutes, we froze, not knowing what to make of this development. From within the tent, slow movement signaled the awakening former summoner. "Are you back?" She asked happily, moving to the beads.

"Uh, Yuna?" My double said, awkwardly and quickly pulling the woman out of the tent and pointing a shaky finger at me.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and lazily gazed up at me before realizing, "What!"

"Yuna, we have a problem." I plainly told her.

**Author's Note: **So, what did everybody think? Please leave a review with any of your comments and questions. I'll try to answer them when I post the next chapter.

For those who have followed me through with Eternal Love, I promise I'll come out with the other format. A few people have asked that I rewrite the fanfiction using only one speaker per paragraph, much like this fanfiction. At the current moment, I'm reviewing Eternal Love and making some corrections and adjustments to hopefully make the story even better than before. Once I've done this, I'll get right on changing its format and posting it.


	2. The Man that Dreams are made of

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **Thanks for all the reviews guys!

To Forbidden Smiles and Dominican Angel: I sense that you guys aren't really that thrilled about this fanfiction. Well, hopefully you'll have a change of heart by the time I'm through Chapter 2.

To Akksgurl: Lol, yea I guess Yunie's one lucky lady what with all the cute blondes poppin up all over the place. Anyway, yup, Tidus is back just like the Perfect Ending thing already happened. By the way, I tried to hint at Shuyin's return being just like his.

To StoryWeaver1 and ShadowSin: Thanks a lot for the comments. I'm no genius at writing though. You wanna see a genius, read I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan. Now that's a genius.

Anyway, enjoy Chapter 1!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 1: The Man that Dreams are made of**

Yuna

"Yuna, we have a problem." His lips stated, eyes showing the same darkness it had before.

"Shuyin… How can this be?" I asked, my voice coming out in more of a squeal that I'd wanted.

"This is Shuyin? The guy you saw in that sphere?" My love asked me, not knowing exactly what Shuyin had done the last time I'd seen him with Rikku and Paine.

I never told him how Shuyin had been an evil shadow, trying to destroy all of Spira to quench his grief. I never told him that he was the heartbroken spirit who lost his way for one thousand years, ultimately destroying the man he once was. And I didn't tell him that he was the soulless monster that possessed both Rikku and Paine and forced me to fight them, almost to the end. Although I knew he wasn't truly evil, just seeing Shuyin again was enough to make me cringe in fear. I thought I had left all that behind me after I saw him and Lenne disappear into the Farplane together. I thought I would never have to feel this way again, this despair that I had felt ever since my meeting with him. His words were filled with hatred toward Spira and anguish for what he'd lost. I never wanted to have to deal with it again.

"Yuna, I know what I've done to you. I'm sorry. Fact is… well, nobody could ever understand." Shuyin said softly, his tone the same as before. He'd called me Lenne back then. Though his words were gentle and loving, his message was filled with a darkness I'd only seen in one other person: Seymour.

I shook my head to lose those horrible memories, "No. This was supposed to be over and done with. You went away with Lenne and that was it. You can't be back. I don't want you to be back. You've caused enough harm!"

I tried to run, but I had to stop the man who I mistook Shuyin for, "What did you do to Yuna!" He was very forceful in saying this. It reminded me of being in Bevelle that day, over two years ago. He'd become furious when Seymour kissed me.

"Look Yuna, I know this must be hard for you. It's not like I treated you all too well before. Thing is, this time, I don't even know why I'm back or how it's possible that I'm alive again. But, I am alive and that's a problem." Shuyin said to me, completely ignoring his double.

"Hey! I don't know what you did to Yuna, but she obviously doesn't want anything to do with you. Back off or I'll have to hurt you." He said to try and get Shuyin's attention.

I turned to see Lenne's lover scowling his duplicate. I knew that expression, too. He'd given me that same look just before he was about to plunge that sword into me back when we were trying to stop him. It was a look that brought impending death and I wasn't about to lose my love again. "Stop! Please don't attack!"

Shuyin ignored me, "You… You think you can hurt me? I'd like to see you try, you fake!" He glared at us both, unsheathing his sword… His sword… It looked different from the last time we'd fought him. It seemed renewed and… Shuyin didn't have pyreflies circling around him. Was he really alive again? Could I trust him? No, it had to be another trick.

"You think that sword scares me?" The star of the Zanarkand Abes exclaimed, pulling out the sword Wakka had given him, "Take a good look at my weapon because soon it'll be in your head!"

I pulled at his arm, but he forced his arm free and clashed blades with Shuyin. I knew he was a good fighter and he'd grown much from the pilgrimage, but Shuyin was far more skilled with his weapon. We had only defeated him before because he paused his attack when Rikku begged him not to kill me. I managed to shoot him and that seemed to be all that we needed to win.

"Ya know, throughout my lifetime, I've killed a lot of people. One more won't make a difference to me." Shuyin threatened, his eyes growing darker as he made a sneer.

I knew that he'd killed everyone besides Nooj, Baralai, Gippal, and Paine in the Crimson Squad, but I hadn't thought of how many he could have killed in life. Zanarkand had been in a war and he was a part of that war. "You must stop! He's more dangerous than you think!"

I watched as Shuyin shook his head gently, a frown forming on his features, "Yuna… I was dangerous. You fail to understand that…"

"Yunie! How's… Ahh! It's him!" Rikku said, running up to us. As soon as she saw Shuyin, she took out her daggers, "What do you want this time? Haven't you hurt enough people?"

I half expected him to kill us all right where we stood. If the fayth couldn't stop him and we nearly died the last time, what was to stop him from finishing the job now? He sighed, "Look, I'm not here to fight. I'm not here to kill. I'm not even sure why I am here to begin with. Fact is, I am here and there's a problem."

"Yea, that problem's you, buddy!" Both Rikku and my love shouted together, never letting down their guard for a second.

"C'mon Yunie, we could use some help here!" Rikku added.

"You just don't get it, do you? I'm not an unsent and I'm not here to blow up Spira." Shuyin grunted, putting a hand on his blade, "If you won't believe my words, perhaps you'll believe this." With that, he removed his glove and slid his hand across the weapon, wincing as blood seeped out of the cut that formed. "Can an unsent bleed?"

Rikku immediately went over to him, "Wow, you are bleeding! This is disasterrific! You're bleeding! We gotta do something!" I smiled at my cousin. She always cared too much about other people.

"Don't worry about it, Kirin… uh… Rikku… It's only a small cut. It can't kill me." Shuyin said, smiling after he finished, "Can't kill me… I never thought I'd get to say that again."

"Whoa whoa whoa, so we're all supposed to be friends now? I don't buy it. Yuna was really freaked out by you. Something's up and I wanna know what!" Shuyin's better half exclaimed, pointing the tip of the Brotherhood at him.

Rikku squeaked and scurried back to him, screaming, "Wow, was I just tending to his wound! Wait… did he just call me Kirin again? Why do you keep screwing up people's names?"

Shuyin smiled again. I noticed something, though. His smile wasn't like the ones from before, full of evil intentions. He was genuinely smiling about what Rikku was saying. "Well, if you can get my twin here to stop sticking his twerpy looking sword in my face, I could tell you."

"No chance pretty boy. I let down my guard and you're gonna do something just like that Seymour."

"Maester Seymour? Well, our goals might have been the same, but understand that I'm not some guado and I didn't turn my mother into an Aeon." The former shadow replied.

"Well, I don't think you'll get this guy to put down his sword, but I still wanna know why you keep calling people different names." Rikku said forwardly while still taking shelter behind my blitzer's back.

"You know, if you wanna sound tough, you shouldn't hide behind him. Anyway, with calling Yuna Lenne, I was trying to actually talk to my love. Lenne's presence was in your cousin so pardon me if I creeped you out with that. Also, I wasn't really my old cheerful self back then, if you hadn't noticed. Sorry to say this Yuna, but I was rather pissed with you dawning Lenne's clothing. I felt it was disrespectful. Calling you Lenne did seem to get you on edge so I figured that was a bonus. Anyway, calling you Kirin, Rikku, was simply my millennium's worth of memories catching up with me. You have no idea how much you're like Kirin." Shuyin seemed to be captivated by my cousin, staring at her through my love's body. It made him quite flustered.

"Hey, stop looking at me like that!" He told Shuyin, sticking the sword out further.

By my guess, Shuyin grew tired of having the Brotherhood in his face. In a split second, he lunged forward before any reactions could be made and flipped his double onto the sand, snatching the sword from his hand as he did so. "Listen to me next time."

Rikku squealed at Shuyin's closeness, but I still couldn't move. I still didn't know if I could trust this man or not. "Please don't hurt me!"

"Rikku, I'm not gonna hurt you. How many times do I have to say it before you'll believe me?" Shuyin said exasperatedly.

"How about as many times as it takes for you to stay dead!" A familiar voice growled from afar. Paine charged at Shuyin, trying to stab him through with her sword.

She was the one with the most hatred for him. He'd ruined her life by shooting her and two of her friends by using Nooj's body. If I couldn't forgive Shuyin, there was no doubt she'd never be able to. She extended her weapon, but Shuyin was too fast and nabbed it between his arm and waist, twisting to force Paine to let go.

"You know, if I hadn't done what I did and dodged instead, you would've stabbed right into Rikku's heart." He told the silver-haired warrior, stepping aside to show her just how close she had been.

"You'd love that wouldn't you!" She screamed at him, "What are you two doing not trying to kill him? Do you want him to possess you or make you kill each other?"

Paine was ready to sphere change when Rikku stopped her, "No! He's not like that now. He's…"

"I don't want to hear it. If you guys want to trust him, fine. But don't come crying to me when he rips out your heart and crushes it." She shouted, storming off.

"Shuyin," I finally said, my voice as shaky as every, "If what you say is true, then I believe I can trust you. I don't know what you want from me, though."

"Yuna, I don't want anything from you. Actually, I guess that the only thing I was looking for after seeing you again was your forgiveness. I never wanted to cause you so much pain. I was just… bitter." He told me.

"Well, a thousand years of regretting stuff will do that to you." Rikku chimed in, putting an arm around Shuyin's shoulders. It was a little funny to see because Rikku was much shorter than Shuyin and reaching her arm that high put her in an awkward position.

"Okay, so I'm just supposed to forget this whole episode and think Shuyin's a good guy? What gives?" My love said in all his amazing purity.

"No." Was Shuyin's reply, "I don't expect anything from anybody. I turned Spira upside down and nearly blew it to itty-bitty bits. I don't think anyone would understand why I'd do something like that."

Rikku came in then, patting Shuyin on the chest with both hands, "Well, I like to think that what's in the past is in the past. C'mon, you can't get anywhere if you keeping looking behind ya all the time!"

Again Shuyin smiled warmly, "That's exactly what Kirin would have said. You'd both be right, too. I'm just not that kind of person. Isn't that right Shuyin?" He directed that last comment to his look-alike, but why he'd refer to him by the same name, I didn't understand.

"Shuyin? Are you talking to me? My name's not Shuyin." He responded with that adorable confused look he'd shown many times during my pilgrimage.

"Well, you are the fayth's creation in my image. If they don't call you Shuyin, what else… oh, that's right… I forgot all about that." Shuyin said, snickering to himself for a little bit. I didn't know what was so funny, but I decided I'd want to know.

"What seems to be so amusing, Shuyin?" I asked him. Actually, now that I think about it, it is strange how my star blitzer's name isn't Shuyin's when the fayth did say that he was a dream. Shuyin was also from Zanarkand and looked almost exactly like Shuyin so he was probably created to be the dream's Shuyin. I never really gave it much thought before, but unless there was someone else in the real Zanarkand that looked like Shuyin, my love had the wrong name.

"See, I wasn't known by Zanarkand's people as Shuyin. No, that was my birth name. I didn't have much of a childhood. Daddy might have been famous, but even his son, only after I became a big star did people acknowledge me as Jecht's son. Before that, I was just the bastard kid. Dead father, dead mother, and raised by the family of a friend. Oh, that friend would be Kirin, by the way. Yea, dad and Kirin's parents' used to be Abes so when mom and dad died, Kirin asked them to take care of me, too. Of course, that never worked out. I didn't want to live with anyone after mom died. The only person who I'd let see me was Kirin herself and sooner or later, Shuyin was pretty much a street rat. So, one day Kirin had this idea that I should just forget my problems and join the Abes with her. I thought it'd be the perfect way to spite dad so I agreed, but I didn't want anyone to know I was Shuyin. That when I came up with Tidus and sign up with that name because I thought I'd shame my family's name if I didn't do well." He smiled a little after that, "From then on, I was Tidus of the Zanarkand Abes. I was the star player and Jecht's son again. After that, I stayed Tidus not to hide the fact that I was Jecht's son, but that I was Shuyin, the one they'd all cursed at. I basically figured they had no right to know me as the person I really was. After that, Tidus just became this shallow blitzer character I used whenever in public. Kirin accepted that and just played along." He finished it up and seemed to be reminiscing about his friend. Rikku stared at him, probably thinking the same thing.

"Wow Shuyin, I'm sorry… I didn't think you'd had such a hard life." I said to him gently.

"Heh, don't worry about it. Besides, it did make me kinda tough, right? I think it's the hardships in life that make us stronger." He replied, giving me the same sweet smile his double always had.

"Wait, if I'm him, shouldn't that mean I would know stuff like this? How can we be sure you're not lying?" My love questioned him.

Shuyin only grinned, "You, my friend, are a dream of the fayth, no?" He nodded. "As a dream of the fayth, these fayth being the former citizens of Zanarkand, you'd have the same memories as they would have or think I should have as Mr. Shallow Zanarkand Abe, Tidus. Well, there's your answer right there. I'm a lot more complicated than the people of Zanarkand think and they never got to know that. Sorry to say it Yuna, but your guy is only a shell I concealed myself in."

"Hey, don't sell me short like that! I'm deep and complicated, too!"

"Really? How?"

"My dad died, too and so did my mom and I felt the same way you did when I lost them both."

"Great, so you know that little bit about my past that I let Zanarkand know about. Big deal. Everybody knew I wasn't too much of a Jecht fan and that I blamed him for mom's death. So what? Did you have to go through people, my peers and even adults, call you a bastard and an urchin for most of your childhood after you lost them? Who took care of you? I told you already that I practically raised myself given the exception of Kirin. Who took care of you?" Shuyin returned.

"Auron did, but I wouldn't count him as much of a caretaker. He was more interested in scolding me than anything else.

Shuyin huffed, "So you can a mentor. I know Auron. He's Braska's guardian and a warrior monk. He's very good if you ask me."

"Okay, if we're done with this macho fight, I really don't want to be here all day hearing you to brag about how bad your childhood was…" Rikku interrupted, but was cut-off herself.

"Wait, you actually think Auron's a good chaperone! Man, I feel for you. He was so strict!"

"He's a monk, what did you expect? Heck, I think if I had someone like that around, I wouldn't have gotten into so many fights. Well, Rothel's got a bit to do with that, too, but I think one long-winded story's good enough for one day, right?" Shuyin finalized the conversation, "We'll just leave it here. I was brought back for some reason or another, but whatever the real reason, I've been able to make peace with at least two out of… all of Spira. Anyway, maybe that's why I was brought back. Maybe I need to set the record straight. Whatever the reason…"

"I'm sure the future will hold the answers you seek." I finished for him. Even if I was still afraid of him, I couldn't let my fear of actions made in the past stop me from accepting the possibility that Shuyin wasn't like that anymore.

**Author's Notes: **So how's my Yuna personality? For the girls, if anybody thinks this was a little off, just tell me in a review, kay? I'm trying to make this multi personality but I've never written what a girl might think or do so I'm not sure if I'm coming off too stereotypical or anything. Chapter 2's coming soon! Until then!


	3. Shuyin’s Past: Who’s Kirin?

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **KK, I get it. Don't worry.

Anyway, StoryWeaver, this chapter'll explain how Shuyin knows Auron, though my other fic also explained it, too.

Anyway, thanks for the great reviews!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 2: Shuyin's Past: Who's Kirin?**

Rikku

I didn't understand it. Everything I knew about him was telling me he was bad news no matter what I may have said to him or what he told me. The guy tried to blow up Spira for crying out loud. He was the meanest meanie if I ever had to pick. The whole time he messed around with Gippal and Nooj and Baralai, it just wasn't right! Two years and all he tried to do was steal that machina to blow up our home. The guy's crazy in the head! I shouldn't even think twice about him!

So why am I headed for the guests' hut? Shuyin'd been lodged in there since there wasn't anywhere else for him to go. Yunie seemed to have accepted him and his story about not being himself. Fayth said he was only a shadow when we found him, but I knew better. He did possess me and all… Wow, that was a creepy thing. I shouldn't think about it anymore. It would make me shake. Wow, look at me, I'm already shaking! Oh, Rikku! Stop thinking like that! Anyway, I knew he was just an unsent. He's like that meanie Seymour. That guy wouldn't stay dead either. But… even Seymour didn't have enough in him to control the fayth like Shuyin did. If he could control someone that powerful, I wonder what else he could've done…

I reached the hut and pulled away the cloth. "Who's there?" Shuyin quickly asked, drawing his sword, "Oh, it's just you. Hey, Rikku. What's up?" With that said, he went back to messing around with the covers. Nobody else was in the hut since the Aurochs were out training again since Wakka finally told them he'd gotten the hang of this baby thing.

"Sorry if this bed isn't as glamorous as the ones you slept in before. Let's see, you were controlling Nooj then, right? So that means LeBlanc's bed? Guess she's got a place a little more pampered than Besaid is." I told him, thinking that that must be why he was fidgeting around.

He looked at me strangely, "What? Oh, I wasn't even in control of Nooj's body when all that stuff happened." Quickly, he stopped messing around with the covers and just climbed in, putting his arms under his head and looking up. "No, don't worry Rikku. I've had my fair share of mediocre bedding. My house, as embarrassed as I'm to say this, was kinda plain. I'm not much of a decorator. Lenne always complained about that. Said I needed to spruce the place up. Lenne… Rikku, I have to find her, maybe even find them… If I'm back, it wouldn't be fair if Lenne, if Kirin, didn't get another chance, too."

"You really miss them, huh?" What was I saying! This was a cover-up! I know it is! But why can't I seem to look the other way? Shuyin's nothing but trouble and I know that. I knew it ever since he… again, not going there. Bad place, very bad place. I felt myself tremble again at the thought.

"Yea, I do miss them…" He told me quietly, never taking his gaze off the roof of the tent, "Thing is, you weren't there… You don't know how I lost them. Rothel, Kion, Vena, and then Kirin… Finally… Lenne…"

"Don't forget you, too!" I corrected, seeing him make a frown as I did so.

Shaking his head slowly, he turned to face me, "Rikku, as if I deserve to be counted. I promised myself that I'd protect my friends. I failed that. I promised that if they killed Rothel, I'd make Bevelle suffer. I failed that, too. I promised I'd never let Lenne die…" After he finished saying that, he looked away and I knew he was doing what I tried to every time I thought of something sad. He just knew how to show it a little less that I did.

"Shuyin… You didn't fail them. That's why Lenne came back to you, right? Yunie was feeling Lenne's emotions and Paine said that her last words to you were happy ones! You didn't fail them in their eyes! Anyway, I wouldn't want you to blow up Spira if I was in Kirin's place." Trying to comfort Shuyin by making him think of me as Kirin wasn't a smart idea…

"Kirin… She wanted me to rip out a girl's heart once. Of course, that's only after she lost Ju, but even then… I'd never seen so much bloodlust. That really hurt. And that was my fault, too." This guy was just one big self-pity parade. He blamed everything on himself, "If I knew Areth was up to no good, and I really should've guessed that but I wanted to be naïve, Ju wouldn't have died. He'd be alive and Kirin would've been happy. Well, Damu was my fault, too. Kirin'd always been there for me and all I had to show for it was letting her down time and time again. Damu, Ju, and her blood are all on my hands, Rikku. I should've been able to keep them safe, but I didn't. Now, nothing's ever going to change that."

"Oh will you get over it!" I screamed, probably a little louder than I wanted to, "I'm here now and you told me I was just like Kirin! Well, excuse me, but I wouldn't want my friends to feel like they owed me something! So what if I was killed by Bevelle or something! That doesn't mean that it's your fault! If you wanna blame anybody, blame Bevelle for being stupid heads!"

Although he looked at me with surprise, the smile he gave me after showed me he still thought I was being naïve. A lot of people have thought I was naïve. Yunie even did. It wasn't anything new. I was the youngest. I was Cid's little girl. Who'd ever want to take me seriously? "Rikku, if I could show you what I saw happen to Kirin, happen to Ju, happen to Damu, I think I could make you change your mind." He said to me, taking in a deep breath, "But… I'm no longer the Terror of Spira. Nope, I'm just your normal average blitzer. Although, maybe if I just showed you Kirin, you might get something out of that. Who knows?" After that, he just shifted, turning himself to face the back of the hut and away from me.

"Fine then! If you think seeing Kirin in the Farplane will do me any good, let's go!" I said forcefully, trying to be stubborn.

He only laughed and got up from his bed, "Whoever said anything about the Farplane?" I looked at him oddly. "Rikku, I buried Kirin myself. If you want to see her, we go to Mt. Gagazet. Of course, having that geyser on her that whole time, she was somehow restored, but seeing her lifeless form might still change your mind. Who knows, maybe neighboring pyreflies can lend me some aid and show you what I'm talking about."

I thought about it. Did I want to go to Mt. Gagazet with Shuyin… alone? Kimahri was up there so if he tried anything, he would protect me. Plus, since he's the elder, he could always have the other ronso stop him, too. I think I'd be safe. "Well, promise you won't try anything and I'll go." Just being safer, right?

He laughed a little, "Rikku, you're just as cute as she was. Fine, I promise on my own grave, since I've had one, that I won't do any of that make Spira go haywire stuff. As if I could, but I'll still promise." Then, he yawned and snapped his fingers, "Just remembered: It's still night and I'm tired. We should probably just go tomorrow."

"What are you chickening out?" What am I saying!

"Chickening out? Fine, you wanna go now, we'll go. Just giving you a warning. I'm all too capable of handling long nights. I've had a few of those with Lenne and Kirin. I'm just not sure you're up to it. Then again, you are lightning charged like Kirin was. You'd probably do as well as she does." He said, getting the covers off him and walking to the exit. Looking back before he left, he asked, "So are you coming?"

What could I do now? Stupid stupid stupid! Now I've done it! Well, he does seem different now. It's not like he's all crazy, talking creepy talk like he was before. I could give him a chance. Yunie did. Heck, after that macho fight, even Shuyin's duplicate seemed alright with it. He'd been the most fired up out of all of us when we fought Seymour. Of course, that was just him being jealous of the guy at first, but he'd acted just like this when Shuyin first met him. I guess he just couldn't stand anybody being mean to Yunie. Well, neither can I, but he does more physically, like kick and scream about killing Seymour after he kissed Yunie in Bevelle.

"Uh, are you coming? Don't just stare at me like I've got five heads. Hello? Rikku? Are you in there?" Shuyin asked me, waving at me just like he would. Him and Shuyin aren't that far off, I guess. Wait, now I've gone off the subject again.

"Yea, I'm coming. Hold your chocobos!" I told him, finally getting off my knees to follow him outside. "So how are we going to get there?"

"Oh right, you guys have no hovers. What a pity. Al Bhed always loved machina. I know you'd love all the hoverglyphs, hoverglides, and hover cruisers we had in Zanarkand." Shuyin said, obviously going on another memory trip. "Oh well, what's lost is lost. At least you guys still have Akoji and Pally's airship… well, unless my brain was playing tricks on me."

"Akoji? Pally? Their airship? What are you talking about?" I asked. What's with this guy and all these names? I didn't know anything about Akoji or Pally or anybody else he mentioned.

He smiled widely and lowered his head, "I'm sorry, Rikku. It's been a while since I've actually had the chance to relax and reminisce. I mean talking to that other version of me about things and talking to you about Kirin and my other friends, it was really the first time I'd been capable of talking about them without going into a fit of rage. It was kinda nice…"

"Well, that's all well and good, but you still didn't tell me about who they all are. You just keep babbling. It's even worse than Maechen at times." I replied, waving my arms a little, "And you also didn't say how you knew about Auron either! You two never met, I think. How would you know about him?"

"Okay, first things first: I know Auron because… well, a thousand years in a cave, you didn't really think all I saw was one death, did you? I saw everyone's suffering on Spira for a millennium. When Auron was dying and tried to get to Yuna to keep his promise to Braska, I felt his anguish when he realized he wouldn't make it. I felt his pain when he watched Kimahri Ronso leave in his place as he breathed his last breaths. I know about Braska, too. Oh, by the way, if you know about Jecht and how he's the other me's dad, he's also mine. See, dad pulled off a returning act just like I did, only he managed to just meld and replace his copy… well, sort of. I think when that one got to Spira, my dad was basically reborn. I don't know how he got back into the Farplane, but whatever happened, that's when he remembered everything about me and his real life." Shuyin explained. Wow, this guy's explanations take a while. Although, saying that he's suffered what all Spirans suffered was kinda creepy, too. He went through that much? Maybe it shouldn't be that surprising he went loony. "Anyway, that's how I know them. Regarding my friends… Where to begin? You know what? Why don't we get aboard that ferry over there and I'll tell you as we go along?"

"Why take the ferry? The Celsius is just over there. Even if it's Brother and Buddy's ship, I know how to fly it, too. It doesn't take a genius. I mean if Brother can fly it." I told him, not sure if what I was doing was right. Letting Shuyin on our airship, at night, to go to Mt. Gagazet with him by myself, it really didn't seem like the best plan in the world.

"Well, if we're going, we should still leave the others a sphere. You know, let them know where you are and all. Don't want them worrying about you. I mean, that's why you've been playing around with your braid all this time, right? Still a little nervous I might kidnap you or something." He knew exactly what I was thinking and that was really really scary. It reminded me that he'd been in control of my body once and I shook again. "Look, you have nothing to be scared of. I already showed you that I'm alive. Alive meaning I'm not the evil ghost of Bevelle's dark past anymore. I'm just your plain old everyday Joe, only… I'm a star blitzer Joe with the sword skills taught by an unsent legend." With that, he smiled at me warmly, a very sincere smile, I can tell you that.

"Alright… I trust you. I guess, it's just hard, ya know? You did… well…" I tried to tell him, but the thought of what he did to me just made me shake again.

"I know. I possessed you and it was creepy as crap and you really find it hard to think I'm not like that anymore. Rikku, believe me, I find it a little funny I'm not all bloody murder and let loose the dogs of war and stuff, too. You know what I blame that on? I blame you and Yuna. You were the loon that threw yourself over your cousin when I was about to strike. You know what I saw then?" I know what he saw. He saw Kirin. That's what he mumbled then anyway. I remember thinking that he was really off his rocker for thinking Yunie was Lenne and I was Kirin. But then he explained that his past basically caught up to him with me and he was really trying to be a meanie to Yunie. "Anyway, Kirin reminded me not to lose my heart and my heart held me back. Of course, having a heart may have cost me that fight, but if Lenne hadn't shown up when she did, I doubt that would've lasted too long. You aren't anything if you've got no soul. Lenne's mine and until I was reunited with her, the man you saw was practically a shadow, like Fayth said."

"You really need to tell me about them. Well, here's a sphere. I guess I'll just tell them where we're going then." I informed him, moving to press the record on it.

He stopped me, "Maybe I should. If you record it by yourself, they might just think I coerced you into going and I'm up to no good. If I record a message, too, they'll be able to see me and I'm sure Yuna can tell my evil face from my good face." So that was that. He took the sphere and pushed record, "Yuna, me and Rikku are going on a trip to Gagazet to see Kirin since Rikku's been dying to see her. We should be back soon. Oh, and Rikku's taking the Celsius. Here she is."

He gave me the sphere while it was still recording, "Hiya Yunie! Don't worry, I'm just gonna borrow it. Shuyin seems to know who it used to belong to. Well, anyway, we're going to Mt. Gagazet so you don't have to worry about me. I'm sure you know why! Well, bye bye Yunie! See you soon!" I waved at the sphere and stopped it. "I'll just go put it over by their hut."

It took a minute or two, but I was back with Shuyin there waiting for me, "Shall we?" I pointed at the airship and started a small jog toward it.

"And just where do you think you're going… especially with _him_?" A low and toneless voice whispered from the shadows. It was Paine, but she still hated Shuyin a lot so I kinda expected this.

"Paine, please. If I wanted to harm anyone, don't you think I'd have done it by now? I didn't really take my sweet time with your friends, if I remember correctly." Shuyin told her, obviously making her crazy angry again.

I had to hold her back before she hurt him. She kept charging at Shuyin but I had to keep her away. "Shuyin! Why are you being such a meanie! Apologize to her and maybe she'll calm down!"

I heard a huff and then Shuyin's frustration seemed to show, "Paine. I'm sorry about what I've done. What can I say? I've done them and that's my past. If you can't forgive me, I never expected you to. However, that gives you no right to stop me from going through with the life I've been given."

"And what about those you killed? Don't they get a second chance? Why can't they be back and you be gone! You really don't deserve this! You possess me and you use my friends just for your own sick little plans! I hate you! I'll never let you live it down! You've caused us enough trouble as it is! Why don't you just crawl back into that stinking cave and stay dead for once!" She screamed at him, her body trembling in my arms for the very first time. I felt little drops of water hit my shoulder and mix with my hair and I knew that she was crying.

"Paine! It's okay! He definitely hurt you, but you have to let it go. I mean I had to let it go when the guado attacked Home, right? Even though they killed so many of my friends, I still had to let it go because they weren't all bad. Now, you have to forgive Shuyin because the guy we fought before isn't him. This Shuyin's really good at heart… at least I hope so." I told my friend, hugging her even though she struggled to get me off every now and then.

"I'm really sorry I've put you through all this… I didn't realize… no I realized completely what I was doing… Fact is, this was what I wanted to stop. Look, I wasn't myself back then. I was driven by the pain of Spira's people and my goal was to have Spira destroyed so that nobody would suffer anymore. That was a stupid plan. I see that now. There's no reason to stop the suffering just because it's there. People suffer but life's still more valuable than eternal peace. I told you, Rikku. I've failed everyone. I'm failing people now." Man, these guys weren't making my job easy.

"Shuyin, you haven't failed anyone. People make mistakes! Who cares! Just let it go! Lennie even said that to you! And Paine, why don't you just go to sleep? I'm sure after you're all rested, you'll be a little better at dealing with this. You can't think straight if you're brains all fuzzy, right?" I walked Paine to our hut and put her under the covers. She was already exhausted from crying and yelling so much that she fell asleep while I was still walking her over. Well, after I got her all set, I went back to mopey number two. "Okay Shuyin. Pick that chin up and let's get a move on to Mt. Gagazet!"

He nodded slowly and went onboard after I opened the hatch. I could tell he was still beating himself up over what Paine was yelling at him about, "You know, if you stay mopey, you're failing your friends, too. I don't think Romer or Keyone or whoever would appreciate their pal moping around like this."

He smiled a little and let out a very small snicker, "It's Rothel and Kion and Vena. And… you're right. They wouldn't like it too much if I just kept moping around. Rothel would get pissed off at me for doing it. Kion'd probably just offer up a smoke and Vena, well she'd be all emotional councilor on my butt." That did the trick. At least he wasn't all upset anymore.

I walked away from him and over to the main controls of the Celsius. Hitting the ignition, I raised the airship from the ground and piloted it on course for Mt. Gagazet. "Hold onto your shoopuffs! This is gonna be one heckuva ride!"

"So this is what the airship looks like from within. Looks kinda cute. Guess Lenne and Kirin had some fun riding this thing with those Al Bhed." Wait, Shuyin never rode this? Didn't he say he did? Was this some kind of trick? Did he set me up? What if… "Oh, just in case you're wondering, I went on a different airship. It was Damu's. Haven't seen that one in a while, but I know I'm never seeing that one again." That brought me a wave of relief. Thank you for knowing what I'm feeling.

"Why not? Why aren't you going to see that again? Maybe we've already discovered it." I asked him, knowing full well that even this airship was found, not made.

"Well, it'd be kinda useless to find an airship that's probably mangled up with some war machina parts in the Calm Lands." He told me. So it was in some sort of accident? "Bevelle was attacking Zanarkand while we were in Besaid. Damu rushed us all back there and then the airship was hit by a missile. It started going down and Damu, being the damn heroic he is, tried to suicide dive it into another machina. Sure enough, that time I did save his stupid ass. Of course, that didn't stop him from trying it again and the second time, I wasn't so lucky with the saving part."

"Well, you did save him, right? So there! You can't always be there for everybody. You weren't a super unsent back then. You were only human. You can't always make it out to be that you're some kind of shield for all of your friends to take shelter behind. Yunie tried that during her pilgrimage and even she couldn't take it all the way. You put too much pressure on yourself. It's not very healthy." I'd say that's some of my best stuff yet, wouldn't you?

Shuyin didn't say anything more, his warmth being all I needed to tell me that he agreed with what I said. As the sun began to rise, I continued to steer the Celsius closer and closer to Mt. Gagazet and Kirin. I'll see you soon. Wonder how much she looks like me…

**Author's Note:** Okie dokie. I'm supposed to say stuff about this chapter, but ya know what? The only thing I actually need to mention is: What'd ya think of my Rikku and the having Paine break down like that. oO


	4. The Dream of a Madman?

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note**: I'm really sorry for not updating in virtually a month. School and my friends kinda started tearing me away from most of my usual activities… save E-mail as akksgurl would know. LoL Anyway, I'm really sorry for taking so long, but at least I don't think I left the fic off on a cliffhanger or some intricate moment.

So far, Shuyin and Rikku are on their way to Mt. Gagazet to find the body of Kirin, still restored by the power of the former dream Zanarkand… or is it? Well, since I don't want to freak Rikku out with the disemboweled body that Shuyin got to see back in my last fanfiction, I think I should leave her untarnished. But for now, that doesn't matter. Before they took off on this lovely trip, another somebody had some problems with Shuyin's presence. I'm not talking about Paine…

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 3: The Dream of a Madman?**

Tidus

"He did what!" I screamed after Yuna explained things to me. That Shuyin guy tried to off my Yuna! Why was she defending him? Why didn't she tell me this before? Why did she hide something like that from me?

It was later in the day. Yuna had set Shuyin up in the same place I'd stayed in when I first arrived. I was rather glad now that the Aurochs had gone off to train for an upcoming tournament. Who knew what that maniac would've done. I didn't know why she was so shaky when she saw Shuyin at first. When I was brought back to Besaid by the fayth, she only told me really simple stuff. "It all began when I saw this sphere… of you." She said that kinda strangely, but then she went on to explain that it wasn't really me. She never showed me that sphere and she was always hesitant when I wanted to know more about Shuyin, but I never would have guessed he was that much of a psycho.

"You don't understand!" She returned, turning from me, "Shuyin was… he was confused. He was lost. It was a thousand years and he was separated from Lenne. Do you know how painful it was for me… how painful those two years had been? I couldn't imagine losing you for a thousand years. I…"

"So you think you'd end up like that guy? Go "Oh, why don't I blow up Spira today."? Yuna, I know you too well to even think you'd do something like that. This Shuyin… he's just crazy. We should get to him and lock him up." I replied, knowing way too much about her to even consider that she'd do something like that.

"You think that locking him up would help anything? I already told you what happened to him. I told you what he's been through. Bevelle tried locking him away but he got out. The cave where Paine and the other members of the Crimson Squad found him, I told you what he did there, too. Yevon tried to seal him away then. It still didn't work. You don't understand how strong his resolve is. And… you didn't feel what I felt in that cave. You don't know. Shuyin doesn't quit or lose hope when he's angry or depressed. He becomes enraged. There was so much hate, so much pain in that cavern. When he lost Lenne, it was almost like he lost his humanity with her. If we try to lock him up now, he'll only feel betrayed and grow bitter again. I don't want Spira to suffer again. Our world's been through enough." She pleaded, tears falling from her eyes.

I still didn't fully understand. Over the time I had spent with her on her pilgrimage, I grew to understand that she only cared about others and not of herself. That was why she didn't mind sacrificing herself to take out Sin. Now, with this Shuyin having been around after I vanished with the rest of the fayths' dreams, she seemed so different. She'd definitely been afraid for herself and Spira when I knew her, but she was always able to hide that. Shuyin was making her question her resolve. He threatened Spira, but she wouldn't stop him like we had with Sin. What made her change like this?

"Yuna, what's Shuyin done to you? I've never seen you like this before." I told her, voicing my thoughts.

She walked up to me slowly, "There is a difference between what we went through and what I had to go through alone after you disappeared. Shuyin… he didn't do all those horrible things just because… He wanted to end suffering and making people's lives even more miserable just seemed like the correct path in his twisted mind. He wanted to show people how horrible life was and that it would be the right thing for him to just stop it all. It reflects his death."

"I still don't really understand, Yuna, but for now, I'll just be glad I was made out of what Zanarkand's fayth thought that guy was like." I told her. This Shuyin that seemed to be who the fayth had modeled me after was nothing like me. Even when I first met him, he didn't act like me. Although, with what Yuna told me, he's got the same screwed up thought as that Seymour. I think he was always talking about how death was peace. Both of them are crazy if you ask me.

The night grew ever darker and it was time to get to sleep. I agreed with Yuna that we should think on this at some later time since we weren't going to get anywhere thinking it through in one day. I was never very good at thinking up other ways something could turn out. When I first saw Seymour, I didn't like him. I never accepted anything he said. It was lucky that the guy actually turned out to be a jerk. By what Yuna said, Shuyin really went through a lot to get where he was so I probably should think a little more into it. For now, I don't like him. A guardian has to protect his summoner and my instincts told me not to trust that guy.

"Yuna, me and Rikku are going on a trip to Gagazet to see Kirin since Rikku's been dying to see her. We should be back soon. Oh, and Rikku's taking the Celsius. Here she is." I heard my voice say when I woke up. "Hiya Yunie! Don't worry, I'm just gonna borrow it. Shuyin seems to know who it used to belong to. Well, anyway, we're going to Mt. Gagazet so you don't have to worry about me. I'm sure you know why! Well, bye bye Yunie! See you soon!" That was also a familiar voice. It was Rikku; it had to be. I bolted from the bed immediately and saw Yuna off to the side, her back to me.

"Rikku… No…" She muttered, obviously not knowing I was up.

I moved over to her and put my hands on her shoulders, "She went with him? This isn't good…" Rikku was in the hands of some guy that almost offed Spira before. He wasn't exactly the best person for a naïve and trusting girl like Rikku to be with. "We have to find her!"

"We already know where she is… Gagazet, right? That's where she and Shuyin went?" Yuna replied quietly, probably realizing that I was right about that guy. Of course, she also pointed out that I missed out the fact that both Rikku and Shuyin already said where they were going so we didn't really need to look for them…

"Uh, yea! But how are we going to get there?" I asked her, trying my best to cover up for my mistake. She thought for a minute. I started thinking on what we could use to get there, too. "Wait! What about the Celsius! Brother and Buddy are still here, right? Can't we just get a lift from them?"

"Didn't that sphere say Rikku took the Celsius with her to get to Mt. Gagazet?" I heard a distinct sarcastic voice mouth from outside the tent. I knew who it had to be: Paine… She always seemed to have it in for me. It kinda reminded me of how Lulu was in the beginning of Yuna's pilgrimage.

"Oh… right… Well, any other ideas?" I asked, scratching the back of my head with my right hand.

"Well… We definitely need to use an airship. But, without the Celsius, what other airship do we have?" Yuna asked, her hand on her chin as she thought to herself.

What other airships were there? My brain got a blank for an answer and it frustrated me a lot. "Damn it! Why did Rikku have to trust that wacko? Shuyin… when I get my hands on him…" I started to grumble, worrying about time at every second. It wasn't like when Seymour had the Guado kidnap Yuna. I knew that loser wasn't going to do anything to her. He was just sick and wanted to marry her. But… this guy, this Shuyin guy could do anything to Rikku. And what could Rikku do? Yuna told me what happened the last time they fought. He used my overdrive, but he called it some other name, and he almost killed both of them. He shot Yuna in the legs! I'll kill him for that. "Oh! I can't even think! That guy makes me so mad!"

"Well, shouting about it isn't doing us any good! I hope Rikku will be alright. I don't want anyone else hurt because of that menace. The guys, I lost my life back there… Rikku shouldn't have to go through what I did." Paine slowly stammered, losing me on what she was talking about, "We should just concentrate on one thing and that's finding a way to get to Rikku so we can keep her from Shuyin!"

"Wait… what happened to you 'back there'? Who are 'the guys'?" I asked, even though I probably shouldn't have distracted her or Yuna from thinking up an airship location.

"Can we please focus? I mean what's past is past, okay? Right now you should only be thinking about how to save Rikku from… him… Shuyin…" She told me. I knew right there that Shuyin had done something bad to her, too. Man, who else did he mess around with? Did Rikku come next on his checklist? Poor girl, what was he going to do to her?

I started to think about where there was another airship. Yuna's Spira wasn't anything like my Zanarkand… even if it was only a dream of the real Zanarkand that I lived in. In my Zanarkand, airships were very common. Actually, you'd probably never be caught in a situation like this, thinking about where you could find one to take you somewhere. Then again, Mt. Gagazet was pretty close to Zanarkand when I went there with Yuna. Maybe the Gagazet near my Zanarkand was close by, too. If that was the case, we'd probably just go by foot.

"Are you thinking about saving Rikku's life or something totally irrelevant again?" The stoic woman asked. Jeez, she had it in for me.

"For you information, I was thinking about how to save Rikku. I was thinking that… uh, never mind." I thought about saying what I had been thinking, but then again, thinking about how easy it would be to save Rikku from Shuyin if we were back in Zanarkand wasn't really helping. "Why are you always so angry anyway?"

Yuna laughed, finally saying something to help me out, "Oh don't worry, Paine's always like this. We've grown accustomed to it. She really cares about us. Think about it like how Lulu used to always be grouchy when you first met her. She wasn't so bad later on, right?" With that said, she gave me her usual warm smile and resumed brainstorming.

I thought for a minute. Lulu… she'd been on my case from the beginning, too. The minute she saw me, she knew about Wakka and wanting to make himself believe there was a Chappu out there somewhere and he was just lost like I was. Later, it almost seemed like she didn't like me on the sole reason that I looked like Chappu. Then again, I was kinda clueless and that probably would get on people's nerves. Well, Yuna never seemed to have a problem with me so Lulu shouldn't have been that harsh. Well, she did lighten up towards the end and I knew she didn't want to see me go anymore than Yuna did.

"After we beat Yu Yevon… I'll… disappear." I had told them all. It surprised them all because all this time, even I had believed I had simply traveled a thousand years into the future.

Lulu, which was even more surprising for me, was the first to respond, "What are you talking about!" I never would have expected it. I guess we just grew closer as the pilgrimage went on. I smirked to myself. Guess it meant I could leave an impression.

"You got anything yet?" Paine asked Yuna. My love returned without anything, but continued to think on it.

I wondered for a moment, "Hey, Paine. You were in the Crimson Squad, right? Yuna told me that one of the members was Al Bhed. Wouldn't he know where to find an airship?" It seemed like a logical place to start. The Seltzer… wait, that's not right... Oh right, the Celsius was Al Bhed owned after all.

"No, Gippal doesn't have any airships. His mode of transportation is usually by hover." Yuna corrected and it was back to the drawing board.

"Even if he did have an airship, how are we supposed to get to Djose from here without another airship? We're wasting time and not getting anywhere. Since there's no airships around, we should just go the long way and hope we'll get there before Shuyin does anything." Paine suggested, beginning to make her way to the beach and the port.

I thought long and hard. We couldn't just go the long way. It had taken us at least a three or four days to get from Besaid all the way to their Zanarkand. By then, Rikku would be sushi. Then it hit me… "Wait, we could contact Gippal from here. We can contact almost anyone from here. Don't you remember those tele… er… something spheres that… that… kid put up?"

"Yes, but what would Shinra's comspheres do for us if we have nobody to contact. We still don't know anybody with an airship." Yuna said, slightly upset over this problem.

Again, an idea hit me. It must have come from just coming back to Spira. All my memories ended with my disappearing from Spira after Yuna sent the fayth and Sin. I remembered it all so clearly. I doubt an airship was lost to us. Even knowing what the owner was like, I'm sure it would still be around. Well, I had to take my chances. "Yuna, I know where we can get an airship. Get on the comsphere…"

**Author's Note:** Well, this one is definitely one of my shorter chapters. Tidus just isn't informed and as up to date as the rest of the cast. Therefore, all I could really have him think is stuff about Yuna's pilgrimage. Therefore, he'd start comparing everything to back then. But… it did help him out in the end. Yuna has been through two years since then. She's remembered the most important aspects to her pilgrimage, but minor details would play with the mind… and also I just really had to drag this out so I could get Tidus to show more character. ;;

Hope you enjoyed it. Next Chapter: Rikku and Shuyin reach Gagazet and see Kirin, but a mysterious figure looms in the recesses of Mt. Gagazet. Who is this character and what is my reason for putting up this really lame spoiler? Find out next time! oO


	5. Memories of Light: A Silent Vigil

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **To StoryWeaver, I know that difference, but I needed someone to have the gang compare Shuyin to and psycho Shuyin is very much like Seymour.

To akksgurl, well you got the airship right and you'll see the Cid thing that you picked out as well. Well, I didn't go as overboard with him as I could have, but that's not too much of a bad thing, right? Oh, you might also see some of your other comment in here, too.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 4: Memories of Light: A Silent Vigil**

Shuyin

That Rikku was certainly something. Just as Kirin had done over a thousand and ten years in the past, this blonde Al Bhed girl who'd only known me as some psychotic killer wanted to cheer me up. It'd been so long since I remembered being carefree and naïve. That Machina War with Bevelle completely destroyed that part of my mind. I swore I'd never be fooled again and it cost me my innocence. We all lost our innocence from that horrible event. Once Damusa was killed, that's when everything began to spiral into oblivion. Then came the day Areth had Kai executed for betraying Bevelle. My mind can only remember the terrible way we lost our lives. It'd been burned into it for a thousand years after all. I failed to save any of them and those pyreflies in the cave felt my regret and aided in expanding it, repeating the moments of their deaths over and over. It had been like a bad dream.

"Shuyin? Are you alright?" Rikku asked me. Apparently, I'd dozed off while recounting my past. Rikku looked at me with concern.

"Why wouldn't I be alright?" I asked her, not understanding why she was concerned. I just fell asleep, right?

She moved over to sit next to me on the bright colored make-shift bench I had dozed off on. "You were saying things. Something about how none of you guys deserved a life like you had. Did you have a nightmare?"

I huffed slightly and smiled a bit, "Yes, a dream that lasted for a millennium. I'm glad to finally awaken from it. Hopefully, I'll be past it one day. Until then, don't mind my sleep talk." She seemed to be satisfied and didn't start the comfort session again.

How alike those two were. It was amazing. Their similarities were in both physical and psychological aspects. It was almost as if Kirin never died. Both of them had the brightest and most cheerful outlook on life. When Trista had that faked Kirin attitude, I'd thought I'd met her equal in strange hyper behavior, but this girl was something else. She must have noticed what I was thinking because she started giving me sideways glances.

"Shuyin? Why are you staring at me like that?" She asked, her voice even a viable match to Kirin's. She even looked at me in that cute way Kirin would look at me should I do something bizarre.

I couldn't help but smile to myself like an idiot, "It's nothing. You just… You're just so much like Kirin. I found that interesting. It's amazing how I didn't notice that before."

At that point she burst into a fit of giggles, though I didn't have a clue why. "Oh, maybe you were distracted with your plan to blow us all up, Mr. Evil Shadow man. Hard to notice things when you're so dead set on killing everybody." She jested, smiling that warm smile that I'd only known from Kirin and Lenne.

"I guess you're right about that. I probably wasn't so interested in comparing and contrasting people from my time to people nowadays. Still, how I could have missed this is amazing." I told her.

Suddenly, an alarm or signal or something went off on the ship. "What's going on? Is there a problem?" I asked Rikku, as normally airships didn't sound off an alarm unless it was being attacked or losing attitude drastically.

"No, my brother is just an idiot. This noise just means we reached Mt. Gagazet." She explained, fiddling around with the controls and shutting down the alarm.

The Celsius landed and I led the way from it to the peak of the Ronso's home. The airship couldn't land anywhere on the side of the mountain as the cliffs were far too steep. Instead, Rikku put it right at the bottom, outside the crevice that led to the Calm Lands. We ascended past the cavern where I'd sent the Yojimbo fayth with his makeshift Daigoro to eliminate all traces of life with a small army of fiends. It really was amazing. As an unsent, powered completely by emotions the lingered in the plane of the living, I was capable of throwing Spira into chaos single handedly. Takuma was right: My anger was an invaluable weapon.

We moved on and eventually found the land of the Ronso. Funny, I'd managed to bypass them the last time. I had been riding on that chocobo at the time, but I basically skipped up the other side of the mountain and never had to meet their Maester Kelk Ronso. This time, however, Rikku actually proceeded directly into their midst.

"Kimahri!" She called out, her arms outstretched as she ran into the awaiting arms of a blue-furred ronso.

The ronso embraced her as an old friend would, but I had no idea she'd known a ronso, as well. "Kimahri is happy to see Rikku…" Then he turned to me, "Kimahri also happy to see you back. You make Yuna happy."

I blushed slightly and put a hand on the back of my head, "I'm… not who you think I am…" I admitted to the one I now knew was named Kimahri.

Rikku giggled easily as if nothing should bring discomfort for the ronso about me. "Silly, this isn't him. He's Shuyin. We met him after… oh right! You've seen him before. The sphere that you wanted me to give to Yunie, it wasn't a sphere of him. The sphere was actually Shuyin."

"Kimahri not understand. How can this not be that man? Ronso eyes do not see false." The brutish one told Rikku, obvious not believing that their friend was only a dreamed up version of me.

"Kimahri… My name is Shuyin. I lived in Zanarkand over a thousand years ago. The guy you know… he never lived in my Zanarkand. He lived in a dream of the fayth. Actually, I think I could show you. We're headed that way, too" I explained to him.

Rikku poked my arm inquisitively, "Wait a second! I thought you were taking me to see Kirin!"

This brought a warm smile to my face. Rikku was every bit like Kirin. I still remembered that day Lenne received Elumina as her ultimate Aeon. Kirin had been confused as to who the vampire Aeon was and why we were so displeased to mention his obtaining. "Okay, I'll just pretend like I know what you guys are talking about so, yeah, I agree. " She'd said. Later in that day, when we were out hunting fiends, she'd been the impatient one who'd gotten us in trouble with that substantial group of fiends.

"Rikku, the place I buried Kirin is where the dream of Zanarkand was placed. I think it was the power of the dream that actually put my Kirin back together." I explained to her as she made the "oh, now I get it" face.

We ascended the mountain, the three of us, but Kimahri seemed overall confused about what we were doing. On the other hand, I could detect some form of ronso nostalgia from him, due to the fact that every now and then, he'd look down at the ground and direct his foot to a certain spot. It almost seemed like he was trying to step in the same places he had before. Noting that Rikku knew him and he'd talked about Yuna, my guess was that this ronso had been another of Yuna's guardians and he was trying to remember how he'd walked that day over two years back. It was an amusing site at times, but I knew that could've been me had I lived out my life.

"Kimahri still not understand. If you are Shuyin and not Kimahri's friend, where is Kimahri's friend?" The ronso questioned, still taking calculated steps as we walked up to the summit of the mountain.

"Oh, we didn't bring them with us. Don't worry, he's with Yunie and Paine right now. Actually, they're probably up. Hope they got the sphere and didn't freak out." Rikku answered, thinking back on those we'd left back in Besaid.

Yuna probably wouldn't mind this all too much. My clone, however, wanted to rip out my spleen. He'd probably have some choice words for what Rikku had done… or rather what had I done to her. Paine would undoubtedly side with him, but it wasn't like I didn't deserve that. I'd screwed up her life so badly, it wasn't surprising she'd hate me so. My duplicate disliked me on account that I tried to kill his love; that's about all. He's just as overprotective as I am and he's equally as arrogant.

We finally reached the summit and the large rock that had the body parts sticking out of it. I figured I'd be seeing what I'd seen when I last came, but I forgot to take into account that over those two years I spent as Nooj, Yuna had permanently beaten Sin and rendered the dream of the fayth, nothing. It shouldn't have been overwhelmingly surprising that the tower of water had disappeared and the glow from the wall of Mt. Gagazet would have faded.

"The spring! The apparition! I hope Kirin's still like how I left her." I said in concern. I didn't want Rikku's innocent eyes to see what Kirin had died like. I didn't want to see Kirin in that way myself. I wanted to show Rikku just why I'd have confused her with Kirin.

With a bit of hesitation, I peered down into a pool of water, this being all that remained of Dream Zanarkand. As I searched the bottom, I gave a sigh of relief as I saw her, still dressed in that pink dress I'd put on her before taking her here. I gazed at her beautiful features and longed for her eyes to just open. As much as I knew she'd never open her eyes again, I still wanted her life returned to her. She didn't deserve to die so young.

"She's… just like me… I don't believe it… She really does look like me." Rikku gasped, eying Kirin's body all over through the surface of the water.

I smiled warmly at Rikku. So full of life she was… I guess I always needed someone like her, someone to keep me from remembering the angst of my life. Kirin had been the one that took me away from being miserable over the loss of my mother. Rikku was now the one that was reminding me what I used to believe in and leave behind the evils I'd nearly committed.

"Shuyin wanted to show Kimahri this place? Kimahri already knows this place." The ronso stated, slightly agitated by this turn of events.

"I wanted to show you that I'm the man from Zanarkand, the ruined city. The one you knew came from here. The scene you witnessed two years before was the summoning of my home." I explained.

"I don't get it, though. Why would Yu Yevon pick this place to make the dream of Zanarkand when he'd obviously see that there was something else here?" Rikku asked, waving over to the gravesite.

I looked down, somewhat angered by what my mind had summarized for me, "When you're desperate, you'll do anything. Yu Yevon needed to keep Dream Zanarkand away from the people of Spira so this summit would have been the perfect and easiest place to hide it."

Kimahri eventually left, his role in this journey having been completed. He was a ronso Elder and needed to tend to his duties. As for Rikku and I, we remained to continue looking at Kirin's body. Rikku admired it from head to toe, matching up every part of Kirin's body with her own. It was rather amusing watching the girl prance around, take a look at Kirin's hip, hop a little, and finally take a look at her own hip to compare. I, in the meantime, reminisced on all the years I'd spent with that girl. We definitely had an interesting childhood to say the least. We'd always get each other into trouble and then, through mischievous and sly acts, we'd find some way out.

Of course, thinking about old events between me and Kirin reminded me of one more thing: Crushes. I'd had a very minor crush on her, this due to built up affection from the love she'd shown me. I'd settled that into love of a younger sister instead of romantic affection. Of course, that wasn't the end of it. Later on, during my early teen years, Kirin'd developed almost the same crush on me. I was such an ignorant twerp then, I completely disregarded her. She'd revealed her feelings to me one night as a party, but I figured it was one of those, "Hey, I love you", kind of things and didn't think much of it. I simply said, "love ya, too" and went off on my merry way. Then, I had the audacity to get upset at her for not talking to me for the next few months. The worst part was that she actually apologized for being rude to me. Once I found out she really was serious, I never forgot what I did. It had been Jurama that told me about her and how "if I hurt her in any form again, he'd kill me" that a current boyfriend tends to say to the former love interest.

"Wow, we've got the same arms, the same dimples, the same hips, the same legs, the same…" Rikku went on with this for a good five minutes, but it definitely got my attention back on her.

"Well, I told you you two were alike." I said, "Now you get to see for yourself. So…"

"Shuyin…" A low voiced echoed nearby.

I unsheathed my sword, "Who's there!"

"Shuyin…" The same voiced bellowed.

"Come out! Whoever you are, come out here now!" I demanded, readying myself for a fight.

The voice sounded incredibly familiar, but I had not idea what to make of it. Again, it called out and I gripped my sword tighter. Rikku came to my side and unsheathed her two daggers, getting into a defensive position, as well. Together, we waited for whatever it was to reveal itself. It echoed my name once more before I saw him…

"… Galte?..." I muttered, seeing the slightly transparent form of the white ronso I'd known a lifetime ago. "Galte… Is that you?"

"Shuyin… Galte guard Kirin. Galte keep her safe. Galte has missed Shuyin. Last time, Shuyin was so angry. Galte not know how to help." He told me, obviously being there for when I retrieved my sword.

"You've been guarding this place all this time…" I muttered again, extremely grateful to the white ronso for keeping his word for so long. "I didn't even expect you to stay this long."

"Who's Galte?" Rikku asked, breaking our moment.

I smiled as I turned back to face her, "Oh, that's right. You two have never met. Rikku, this was Rothel's friend, Galte Ronso. Galte, this is Rikku."

Galte stared strangely at the blonde before turning to me, "How is Kirin alive?"

"No, I'm not Kirin. I'm Rikku." She reiterated for my unsent friend, performing a curtsy afterward.

I walked over to Galte and put my hand on his shoulder. "Enough Galte. You don't need to keep watch over Kirin anymore. I'm back and I'll take care of her. You go on… Be with Rothel."

Nodding his understanding, he left with the parting words, "Galte wait for the day we all are together again." His body erupted in pyreflies and flew past me into the Farplane to finally be at peace, along with the rest of my friends.

Soon after, Rikku and I went back down Gagazet. It was touching to see Galte again, but at the same time, I'd kept him on Spira. To have a friend with that much resolve; I truly was a lucky one. As we made our way down, we heard a few voices, each more agitated than the next.

"What do you mean you saw a dead body?" My voiced screamed.

We found our way back to the ronso village where my other promptly grabbed my collar, "What'd you do to Rikku?"

"We did what the sphere said; we visited Kirin." I replied plainly, removing his hand from my collar by gripping his wrist tightly.

Yuna was the next to say something, "Kirin?" She turned to Rikku, "Did she really look that much like you?"

Cute as can be, Rikku nodded a few times and started hopping up and down, "She looks just like me Yunie! C'mon, I'll show you!" And with that, Yuna was dragged back up the way we'd come.

"So that's all you did?" Both Paine and Tidus asked me in sync.

I never got a chance to answer. From somewhere nearby, I was grabbed by someone with a bald head and some yellow jumpsuit thing. "What have you been doin' with my daughter!"

I shook my head and put up my hands, "We just went to see an old friend of mine."

He seemed… somewhat convinced, as he moved away and back into… a tremendous airship, one I'd never seen on Spira before. The design was very smooth and articulate. By looks, it seemed the chief source of movement came from the huge turbine in the back.

"Where'd you guys get an airship like that?" I asked any one of them.

My duplicate was the one to answer, "That would be somewhere under the waters of Baaj Temple. I helped find it, you know?" Ever the arrogant blitzer… "Its name is Vena and it was the airship we used to kick Sin's butt!"

"Vena?" Obviously that meant something to me. "Vena… She was one of my friends and a great player on the Abes. What I would imagine her thinking if something with a backside like that was given her name."

I think I'm gonna finally get back the life I lost. I rather like it here…


	6. Impressions

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Notes: **Ookay, first thing's first. I apologize for not updating for this long. Summer started and I just went into this "I wanna sleep" faze and couldn't will myself into writing. Fear not! I would never let this story die cuz I like it too much. Anyway, I wrote a little coming into my birthday, but then I found I couldn't get my internet to run. On my birthday, I got it to work for like three hours so I just put up the revamped Prologue to Eternal Love, which is currently up for all your viewing pleasure. D However, I didn't have time to explain what that post was about because my internet died on me again. Besides that, I was strapped for time as I was leaving that day to go to China… cuz that's my bday present and all. Yay me! So, I took off and went on my vacation and got back a short while ago. I finished writing this chapter and I started on the next, but I'm in a semi-writer's block right now. It's one of those, "Oh, I hate how this came out" things. I'll try to get that chapter out as soon as I can, but my family is keeping me busy with helping them use their PCs or translating English or… mom's got me doing a tour guide job to Washington. Anyway, I'll try my best.

Minako: Okay! I'll do yours point for point:

For a RikkuxShuyin, I was thinking that'd be cute, but I doubt that's what'll happen. Plus, it wouldn't make sense since Shuyin went a thousand years as a ghost out of love for Lenne. /

Hmm, I think I might bring in Gippal. Lovely how it'll spice things up a bit. Oh, I'm definitely bringing in Baralai and Nooj. I have to have some mention of them flipping out since good ol' Shuyin's back in town. Of course, all this will be later on.

Will I bring back Lenne? Well, you'll just have to read.

Paine, ouch. Yes, she's not going to like Shuyin for a while, but can ya blame her? Don't worry, somehow I'll soften her heart.

Tidus is a copy of Shuyin, though, so yes, they'll keep thinking so. Whether they'll keep liking that fact, that's up for grabs.

Yunie's thoughts are in this chapter. Oh, but she's no Lenne clone.

tbc? You better believe it.

Dominican Angel: Sorry for not updating soon, but better late than never, right?

Forbidden Smiles: Nah, I wouldn't make something bad happen so early in the story. I need them all to feel safe and secure. Then, I can really step on their hopes and dreams for the future! )

Chapter 5: Impressions

Rikku

Yunie had to see. It was amazing how much Kirin looked just like me. Even if she was born a thousand plus years in the past, every bit about her was just like me! It was like she was my copy!

"Okay okay, I get it. You're really excited about seeing this Kirin girl Shuyin keeps talking about, but you're gonna have to stop dragging me around like this. I'm starting to get dizzy." Yunie started to say.

"Fine, but I can't wait for you to see her! Trust me, you'll be as hoppity as me when you do." I told my cousin.

I mean, who wouldn't be excited seeing somebody who looks just like somebody who you know? And who wouldn't be even more excited if that look-alike wasn't the twin of the person you know? It's just too fantastibulous to stay calm about!

It took a while, Shuyin walking a lot faster than Yunie right now, but we got there sooner or later. "So Yunie? What do you think? She's got my nose and my mouth and my hair and my skin and… well everything!"

"I have to admit, this Kirin does look a lot like you. Is she Al Bhed, too?" Yunie asked me.

"Haha! No, she's not Al Bhed. I think Shuyin said the only Al Bhed he knew were the guys that used to own the Celsius." I told her, knowing what her next question would be.

"Somebody else owned the Celsius?"

"Of course! Nowadays, nobody really owns a brand new airship. We can only find them because Yevon made learning about machina a bad thing." I explained.

Poopie on Yevon. Like dad said, "All because of the Yevon taboo on machina, we're running around in the dark!" Not even the Al Bhed know enough about machina to build something like an airship. It was a breakthrough for us to have even gotten some machina ships running. The teachings really made a mess out of Spira.

"Oh, I see. So, who did Shuyin say used to own the Celsius?" Yunie asked. I don't know, but by the sound of her voice, she didn't want to believe anything Shuyin told me.

Well, I believed Shuyin and he told me, "Uh…" Oh poopie, what did he tell me again? "Well, he did mention them, but uh…"

"Did he really mention them, Rikku? I don't know. I still don't really think I believe his innocence story. I mean, think about it reasonably: He was stuck in a cave, smoldering over his guilt for so long that he stopped being himself. Remember what Fayth said, "Just a shadow." Even though he's alive again, I doubt he could regain himself so quickly." Yunie doesn't really have much trust in people anymore.

Not that I would blame her. She used to be a Yevonite like everybody else who wasn't Al Bhed. She used to think that the pilgrimage that summoners went on would eventually stop Sin from returning all together. Then, Bevelle took that hope away from her. Ever since then, she's had very little faith in anything Yevon related. And just before, Shuyin practically did the same thing. She put all her faith into that sphere, thinking that she'd found him again and Shuyin played around with her emotions just to spite us all. Why she would trust anyone or anything ever again, she'd be a glutting for punishment.

Suddenly, his voice came back in the picture, "That's glutton for punishment."

"Huh?" Both me and Yunie asked. How'd he hear my thoughts?

"You kinda said the last sentence out loud." Shuyin chuckled, "Why you would trust anyone or anything ever again, you'd be a _glutting_ for punishment. It's glutton."

"I said that out loud?" I squealed, my cheeks turning red. How embarrassing!

Yunie started laughing a little, "Well, yes, you did start to stare off into space after what I said before. And then, you started mumbling things until that last sentence. You just blurted out that one!"

Is it possible to die of embarrassment? How did that happen? I don't usually zone out… do I? Did Kirin do that, too?

"Oh, and yea, Kirin was like that, too, so don't worry." Shuyin said. What was this guy, a mind reader?

"Did I say that out loud, too?" I asked.

"No, but I've been around the block a few times and it doesn't take a genius to know you were thinking about how your look-alike would've been in the same situation." He told me. "Anyway, I came here because I just realized I never told you about my friends. You wanted to hear about them, right? With the change from ferry to airship, I totally forgot about that conversation we had before."

I think that comment was meant for Yunie as much as it was meant for me. She was still cautious around him and I don't think him showing up just as we started talking about him would've helped the issue. Him, in his know-it-all thousand-year oldness probably guessed that, too.

"Oh right! I forgot, too! I guess, with Paine getting all dramatic on us, and then you with the guilt trip, it just slipped our minds." I said, making sure that Yunie knew about how Paine had messed up our conversation.

"Heh, yea, I forgot about that. Well, anyway, I could tell you about them now, if you'd like. I think your dad, Cid, is busy yelling at the crew." He joked.

"Tell Yunie about the guys that used to own the Celsius! We were just talking about that before, but I didn't remember what you told me." I suggested.

"Oh, you mean Akoji and Pally? Well, Akoji was this guy who was really obsessed with Lenne." To this, he chuckled a little to himself before continuing, "He had tattoos all over himself of her name. When I met him, he was pissed at me because I was playing around with Lenne at the time. I think he was probably jealous that I was the guy she was with and not him, but it didn't really matter. He was pretty cool later, after Kirin calmed him down. Of course, to this day I have no idea what they were talking about. I…"

"They were speaking Al Bhed? Kirin speaks Al Bhed, too!" I asked. I mean, it was enough that she looked like me and acted like me, but she spoke the other language that I spoke, too?

"Yea, believe me, I was just as surprised as you were. She told me that with Damu being Ju's best friend and all, she met up with a lot of Al Bhed on Kresia Island. She must've had to pick it up sooner or later or else she'd be walking around looking like a mute."

"Kresia… Island?" It couldn't be.

"Yea, that's where you guys live, right? Wait… oh, I'm sorry… I just remembered that. I felt it about twenty years back… Sin destroyed Kresia, didn't it…" He said softly, his voice telling me that he had felt their pain when our first home was lost to Sin.

"So Kresia was the home of the Al Bhed for a long time, huh? I didn't know. I just knew that Sin destroyed it and my dad organized the survivors to build Home and we stayed in Bikanel… that is until the guado came." I told them both. I don't think I even mentioned that to Yuna. She knew about Home being destroyed because that's when the guado came and kidnapped her, but I never told her why we started living on Bikanel.

"Yea, I never went to Kresia before, but from what Ju, Damu, and Kirin told me, it was pretty cool. Spira's been through a lot of losses… You know what? That's all in the past, right Rikku? Zanarkand's gone and so is Kresia and Home, but we're alive to preserve their memory. I didn't even talk about Pally yet." Now who's all gentleman-like and trying to cheer me up.

That's probably how Kirin used to do it before. All I have to do is force him into big brother mode and he's all cheery again. I guess it does make sense. He's all about keeping his friends happy so if you make a little sad, Super Shuyin'll have to come to the rescue. That's just like how his copy was. He always kept positive about finding a way to save Yunie during the pilgrimage and it really had an effect on me.

"Akoji sounds a lot like Brother then." Yunie finally said. She actually sounded less held-back than before. Maybe she was starting to trust Shuyin like I was.

"Well, I never met Brother, but…" He started to say.

I interrupted to inform him that, "Brother's an idiot. For some reason, he's got this mondo crush on Yunie even though I'm sure he knows that they're cousins, too!"

To this, Shuyin made a face and rolled his eyes a little, "That's… disturbing… Anyway, Akoji had a crush on Lenne and thank goodness they weren't related like in this_ interesting_ case. Pally was more reserved. She seemed shy to me and my Al Bhed wasn't very helpful to break the ice when we met."

"You spoke Al Bhed, too!" Did everybody speak Al Bhed back then?

"Uh, no. I don't speak Al Bhed at all. I don't even remember what I said, but it was supposed to mean 'hi'."

I laughed at that. Many people who claimed they spoke Al Bhed had tried and failed. It isn't just about knowing how to translate letter for letter what the word is; they never seem to understand that we have a separate pronunciation key, too. I mean, take his duplicate for instance. We ran all over, finding those books to teach him how to understand Al Bhed. He could read it, but trying to say what he was reading in Al Bhed, you'd think he was raised by a Hypello.

"I think the word you're searching for is 're'." I told him.

"Yea! And that's what I said! I said, 'reeay!' But, when I said it, she looked at me like I was gonna eat her!" He said loudly, arms raised high.

Even Yunie started laughing at that. Shuyin definitely spoke better Al Bhed than him, but boy was it awful. A little later on, even Shuyin started laughing. If only I'd been there to see him totally freak out Pally. That would've been so fun.

Anyway, we wasted a lot of time yammering next to the Master Summon, but vydran was waiting for us and he has a very short temper. Together, the three of us went back down to the ronso village. The walk was spent with small talk. Shuyin told us about the adventures he used to go on with Lenne and Kirin and how Rothel was a prankster who got them into a lot of trouble before. He'd really changed. Maybe, he finally decided that what I told him was right and that he can't go on living out his second chance at life by feeling guilty for what he can't change. Anyway, when he talked about Kion and Vena, suddenly he came up with the weirdest idea…

"What?" Yunie asked him after he finished saying it.

"The airship. Its name is also Vena, right?" Shuyin asked.

I don't know where he heard that from, but I had a pretty good idea it came from the other blonde guy we have around nowadays, "Who told you that?"

"Him! He told me it was called the Vena!" With that, he pointed in the direction of his double.

"Oh, hey guys! Uh… something wrong?" He asked.

I promptly patted him on the back of the head, "Why are you going around telling people the airship's name is Vena?"

After an 'ow', followed by rubbing, he replied with, "What do you mean? Cid and Brother called it that before! I remember from two years ago! We were fighting Sin and Cid shouted out, "VENA!" What else could it have meant?"

I shook my head and sighed, "Vena means fire, as in FIRE AT SIN. We never gave the airship a name!"

"Oh! So Vena's name means fire in Al Bhed. That's still cool. If I told her that, she'd probably say, 'what? I'm not hotheaded! DO YOU THINK I'M HOTHEADED!' Then, she'd probably grab at my ear and repeat, louder." Shuyin laughed, mimicking what he said Vena would have done.

Following that scene, I started to scold the dork that said he knew Al Bhed who kept trying to shoo me away. Shuyin had gone off to tell Yunie more tales of his exploits, Paine went back to stalking Shuyin's every move, vydran bossed people around, and Brother and Buddy were put in charge of flying the Celsius back with us.

"So, how did you like the sightseeing?" Shuyin asked me later on in the day.

"It was fun to see Kirin. It was also great to hear you talk about the stuff you've done before. I think I liked story about how you and Rothel messed around with those Bevelle guards. Rothel seemed like a lot of fun to be around."

"Yea, he sure keeps you on your feet. But you know, that's what gets us into hot water a lot of the time, too. He's great to be around, but he'll also get your face on wanted posters if you're not careful." He said, chuckling a little as her remembered the good times he'd shared with his friends.

"Well, he sure doesn't sound like Wakka. He's your clone's best friend, but he'd never pull a prank, I think. I mean, the guy's a little lacking in the imagination department. I heard that from Lulu and from personal experience, I can tell you he's a dodo." I said.

"Haha, maybe. You never know a person until you've seen them in their natural habitat. This Wakka, is he a blitzer?" He asked.

"Yea, he used to be captain of the Besaid Aurochs."

"Ah, I see now. This Wakka's a team captain. Rothel's our team captain. They have to be a little mischievous or else the guy'll walk all over him. Of course, Rothel's that way to me all the time, but you get him with Lenne, Kirin, or Ju… especially Ju, he'll ease off right away. With me, Rothel can be a little wild and rowdy because he knows I can handle that. In front of somebody as cute as Kirin or as graceful as Lenne, that side of him just can't show. And forget about Ju, if he's around, we ALL tend to tone down a little. The only time we've ever horsed around with that guy was at the beach, when all of us were at our worst…" I'm glad he's thinking of happy times with his friends and not only about how he lost them in the end. He's so much better this way.

As we continued on our way back to Besaid, I felt that things were going to be fine. And, if things keep up like this, life's gonna get a whole bunch more interesting…

**Author's Notes: **Yes, so a little bit on the dull side, but like I said, semi-writer's block. / Hopefully the next chapter will be better.

The Aurochs are still in training, but their old captain's off the active roster and back home with little Vidina. What's his and Lulu's take on this whole Shuyin thing? Wakka had to battle many fiends when Shuyin ran amuck last time. The episode almost led to the torching of the temple. Will he be able to accept Shuyin's reformation? Find out next time!


	7. Cozy Home By The Beach

**Disclaimer: **Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **Okay okay, I know, why'd you take so damn long to update! Xx

Well, as I said, I had some writer's block. Plus, I wasn't really up to it since it was kinda the summer so I just went into a lazy streak. Haha. But, I'm back now and I can guarantee the next chapter's not gonna be delayed by much time at all, a two to three day wait at most. )

So now, enjoy Chapter 6!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 6: Cozy Home by the Beach**

Wakka

It was a lovely day out today in good old Besaid, ya? You'd think nothin' would go wrong… I hate bein' wrong…

I mean it wasn't bad enough that Yuna was all crazy just a few months back, runnin' away from home and goin' all ova Spira. Me and Lu… well, guess mostly me, but we were so worried she'd get into trouble. I mean she's only… well she's nineteen… but that's not the point! Oh gahhh… Let's try this again…

I was just on my way to the beach today when they came back. I thought things woulda calmed down with Mr. Zanarkand back with us, but then Mr. Zanarkand 2 had to come back. Now, from what Yuna told me and Lu, this other guy was some kinda weird spooky shadow thing. In fact, if Yuna didn't go off and play Gullwings, I wouldn't be here to even worry about all this. See that guy, uh Subin… Savin… eh whatever, anyway, he had this crackpot idea to blow up Spira! Can you believe that? What a nut, ya? Well, when he did come back, Yuna said he was alright for now so she got us to put him up at the guest hut and I was fine with it, that is until they found that sphere of him kidnappin' poor little Rikku. No tellin' what he could do to her, ya?

"Wakka? What's the matter with you? You've been standing out here, gazing at the sunset since this morning. You forgot about lunch. Is everything okay?" Lu asked me, walkin' up with my son in her arms.

"I'm fine, Lu…" I told her, makin' kinda a grunt after I said it.

"I'm sure Yuna is fine. You worry too much. She did manage to stop him once before, right? If this Shuyin is up to anything, I'm sure she can handle herself. You just need to have a little more faith in her. She's not a little girl anymore and we're got to be parents to another one now."

At first, I didn't get what she was sayin', but when I turned around, my eyes hittin' that small body in Lu's arms, I smiled, "Yea, you're right, Lu. Can't keep watchin' ova Yuna anymore. She's a grown woman now. Baby Vidina needs me more, I guess. It's just, it's like you said back durin' the pilgrimage, ya? She's like a little sister to me… I don't wanna see her hurt is all."

Lu looked at me kinda warmly. She knew! Yuna came to Besaid with Kimahri twelve years back. Who took care of her? Well, me and Lu and Kimahri did! That kinda thing isn't easy to give up, ya? Ah anyway, Lu stood right next to me after that and we just kept starin' out at the shore, waitin' together for the Al Bhed airship to come back… come back and bring Yuna safely home with it.

It took some more time, but finally, the red machina landed again, same spot it took off from. Me and Lu got close to the door and waited while it opened up. I was hopin' for Yuna, but instead, the Zanarkand twins ran out, one of them laughing at the other. Who was who, yea like I knew, ya?

"You think you can take me!" One of them screamed. It was the one who was catching up to the other one.

"Well, seeing how you and I are technically one in the same athletically, right?" After he said that, he kinda did this shrug thing that showed me that he was one of those cocky players, that is if the guy also played blitzball.

Of course, the Blitz Ace had to bow up to Shuyin just to make sure he wasn't one-upped, "Yea? Well, I was swimming circles around Spira's best while you were still a ghost doing your haunting stuff in a dumb cave."

The look Shuyin gave was obvious, ya? Just like me and probably everybody there, he just rolled his eyes to guess at what Mr. Zanarkand Abe was trying to say. "You do know that with Sin around, those teams you took on were probably B-string compared to back in the day, right? Besides, you didn't have to take on the Bevelle Jowiles."

"The Bevelle who? Look, the only team I know of back in the day were the Duggles and we beat them easy. They were nothing compared to the Luca Goers or the Kilika Beasts."

Shuyin laughed and practically howled from that, "The Luca Goers! The Kilika Beasts? Compared to the Al Bhed Psyches or the Jowiles, those teams were foolishly outmaneuvered each game they took us on. The Abes are invincible!"

"Were… right?" Rikku chimed in, finally coming out with Yuna and that new girl, Paine.

"Were… yea… were. They were great…" Shuyin looked away a little after sayin' that.

"Alright, I'll give you that. The Abes were great, but…" Know what? This could take all day with the size of those egos, ya?

I found Yuna and she did her "nods" to tell me she wanted to talk elsewhere. She led the way, Rikku comin' along, too. We got to the side of a nearby wall at the far end of the beach and Yuna decided it was a good enough distance away from those two to start up some chat. I wanted to know what happened. Rikku looked like she was okay so that meant the Shuyin guy didn't try anythin' with her, ya? So then…

"What happened over there Yuna? Rikku? Are you two okay?" I asked them.

Yuna stayed kinda quiet, which bothered me a little, but Rikku answered my question. "We saw a girl. It was somebody Shuyin knew from his past. She…"

"Girl? His past? Didn't you two say he was from like one thousand years back? What gives, ya?"

"She's Rikku…" Yuna said, still lookin' down at her feet, "She's… I don't know what to think about Shuyin anymore really. One minute I just thought he was insanely in love and it made him into a monster after he lost that love, but seeing Kirin there and how he'd gone to so much trouble to bury her there… I just don't know…"

"You didn't even get to see Galte. He stood guard over Kirin for as long as Shuyin was gone. He just left for the Farplane a little while before you guys showed up. From the looks of it, Shuyin had himself a whole bunch of pals just like us. Maybe that's why you know who stuck with us for that long." Rikku told us.

I still didn't get what they were talkin' about so, "What are you guys talkin' about? You said you saw his pal from a thousand years back who was buried and looked like Rikku here and there another pal of his who just died or somethin' and what else, ya?"

Rikku giggled at me from that, but Yuna kept quiet like she was really wonderin' what to make of all this stuff that already happened. "That's right Wakka." She said, grabbin' Yuna by the arm and haulin' her outta there. They just left me to guess at what was goin' on. Great parentin', ya?

Since I got ditched, I decided I'd go talk to Lu and figure out what happened. She wasn't at the beach no more so she was probably back in the village already. It was about time for Vidina's nap. She always said I wasn't too good with imaginin' things and I knew that was right. She was the brains of the bunch. I was just me. Not really sure what that means I'm good for, but Lu said she had faith in me, ya? Anyway, I had to pass by those two on my way back because they were trying to get to the village just the same, but slowin' down lots by bickerin' like they were.

"Haha, well if you think I'm too old to play a decent game, why don't you put your money where your mouth is? I say, we play a game, your team versus… hmm, well, that's just gonna have to subside. You'll just have to take me on by my lonesome. Hehe, maybe the training I did will do me some good." Shuyin said, slumping a little and pattin' his look-a-like on the head.

The guy quickly slapped Shuyin's hand away and grunted, "The Besaid Aurochs can take you on, no problem. I just hope there's enough left of you after for me to laugh at."

"Is that so…"

"Okay okay okay, before this gets way further than it already has, I think Shuyin needs a team, huh?" Rikku said before I finally ducked away from them to head off ahead of them back for the village.

It took about ten minutes to get back to my hut. There were a few fiends around so I had to take care of 'em. It wasn't too bad, ya? I was out of the adventurin' thing ever since me and Lu got together so it was like Yuna and Rikku had told me; I had a pudgy stomach. Praise be to Yevon that the fiends that lived on Besaid were usually pretty weak. After that rush of fiends to the Temple, I knew I couldn't handle the tougher ones anymore. It did make me feel a little down at times, not being able to go after the big boys like back two years ago. I was a full guardian back then, but even though I'm not anymore, it'd be better to know I still had it in me to kick some fiend butt.

"You look… confused… again." Lu told me when I moved the flap of our hut to get in.

"Yea… Yuna's kinda…" I started to say.

"What did she say? I tried to speak with her when they arrived, but she and Rikku dragged you off before I had the chance. Is everything fine?"

"Well, I know that that Shuyin guy didn't try anythin', but Yuna was kinda confused, ya? She said she didn't know what to make of things." I told her, rememberin' what they said before.

"That Shuyin character, did one man change her that much?"

"Hey, you're forgettin' about the other guy that changed Yuna a lot, too, ya? Ya think it has to do with bein' blonde? I mean, first it was Mr. Zanarkand with his 'never say die' attitude, then Rikku haulin' her off to find him when he disappeared, and now this guy."

Lu laughed at that lightly, "I'm pretty sure it has more to it than just the color of their follicles, Wakka."

"Well you know I'm not good at thinkin' up stuff. I just don't know what's wrong with Yuna and what it's got to do with that Shuyin guy."

"Well, why don't you ask him? I think that loud chatter is them. I'm going to go out and quiet them down a bit. I don't want them waking the baby."

Lu left first, leaving me to think if I should do like she said and just talk to Shuyin. The first time I talked to the Zanarkand Star, he didn't make a lot of sense and told me he forgot everything there was to know. Would that happen with that Shuyin guy, too?

After a little bit, the noise outside seemed to quiet down and I just chose to go for it. What could be the worst outcome? I left the hut and saw Lu's back. They were all chatting in a group about somethin', but I couldn't really get a lot from where I was standin' so I made my way closer.

"Well, here he is now. I was thinking he could be on your team!" Rikku shouted, hopping over and grabbin' my arm.

"Team? What are you talkin' about, Rikku?" I asked the girl.

"Hehe, we're trying to figure out a team to give me to face the Aurochs in an exhibition. Rikku's been on about it since the beach. She's already rounded up Yuna as a defensive forward, Buddy as my goalie, Brother as a right forward, and she even got Cid to join up as my left forward. I'm playing center forward so we just need two more for defense and one more for offense since they tell me it's eight players per team now. So, are you in?" Shuyin explained.

By the sound of it, the team was pretty set and I hadn't played blitzball in a while. It would be great if I could get back in that sphere pool, even if it was only one more time. "You can count me in brudda. It'll be fun to mash up Mr. Zanarkand's Star Player over there."

Shuyin smiled a little when I said that, "Ya know, I'm also Zanarkand's Star Player, too, right? But, yea, it would be fun to mash him up."

"Hey! I'm not the one who's gonna get pounded this game. I'll take ya both on!"

Shuyin huffed at the statement, "Buddy, Rikku told me on the airship about Wakka. She said he was the old team captain. I'm sure you'll want to reconsider soon enough."

"Yea, cuz captains have tricks!" Rikku added, jumpin' up from Shuyin's shoulders.

I didn't know what they were getting' at so I had to ask, "What do ya mean? Tricks? I don't use tricks, ya?"

Rikku walked out from behind Shuyin and came up to me, "But you're a captain. Shuyin said all you guys have to know some kind of tricks to keep the…"

Suddenly, Shuyin cupped a hand over Rikku and pulled her in, "He's not gonna tell you he knows tricks, Rikku. It's a train of thought. He knows how to make calls at the right times and in the right situations. I call it knowing tricks, but it's more just how they think from playing so many games. Haha, sorry for confusing ya."

"Well, that's all well and good for now, but we need one more offensive player and one more for defense, right? Wonder who we could get." Rikku said, puttin' her left hand to her chin.

"Well, we only really need that defender because… I'm looking at my second center forward right now." Shuyin replied.

Rikku didn't understand what he meant, but I got it. He was a real contender. He knew how to recruit. Rikku was a very good pick for a companion forward because her slim body is good for speed and judgin' from the guy's legs, he was a shark in the water, too.

"Hey Rikku, you'll do fine on the team, ya? This brudda knows his stuff. So we just need one more, ya? Who we got to choose from?"

They all started to think, but by the looks of things, they weren't likin' who they were thinkin' about. Shuyin looked at the rest of us and then just from Rikku to Yuna and back and just nodded and left. "Hey, where he off to?" I asked them.

"He's going to ask Paine to join. This could be a huge breakthrough for Shuyin to redeem himself or it could just turn into a disaster." Yuna answered. I knew what she was talkin' about. She told me what Shuyin did to her friends two years back when Operation Mi'ihen was goin' on. He pretty much wrecked her life. But, the guy did seem good now, ya?

It took some time, knowin' how Paine was when Shuyin first showed up again was enough explanation why, but she was finally walkin' towards us, arms crossed to show she wasn't completely trustin' the guy. Shuyin jogged back over to us faster and took in a deep breath when he got to us. He was probably getting' his game face on to tell us the sitch; knowin' a pro like him, he was goin' to either sike up the team that he got her signed up or tryin' to get down a good pep talk for us to go after her some more. It wasn't too hard to tell from how he made himself that he was in the game for some time, ya?

"Okay, we got her… but she's shaky so here's what we do. Whatever call I give, it isn't mine. Wakka, since you were captain of the old team, you might as well be captain of this one. I've never been too great at leading a crowd. Yuna, you're in charge of keeping Paine at bay. If I know her, she's gonna be pugnacious and against your boyfriend, I can't afford that… especially since I know he's going to exploit as many weaknesses in this team as possible. Anyway, Rikku, I want to speak to you in private." He finally said, all of that in one breath to prove even more how seasoned the guy was in the workin's of such a sport. Rikku followed him off to the side when Paine caught up with us.

"Alright, so I'm in. Whatever you say, I'm still not trusting that man. I'm joining to make sure you all are safe from harm." She claimed with a grunt, leavin' quickly, followed by Yuna who was followed by her man.

Lu muffled a small laugh from what just happened, sayin', "What a team, huh Wakka? You've got your work cut out for you now that Shuyin's reinstated your captainship."

"I know. This is gonna take some doin', but I can make it happen." I told her. My pride probably kicked that outta my mouth then, ya?

"You'll do fine, Wakka. I have faith in my captains. Rothel never steered me wrong and I'm sure you've got some tricks that the Aurochs don't know about. We'll do just fine against my 'better' half. Besides, if you can't outdo his talents, I'm sure I've still got a trick or two up my sleeve. Good ol' Shuyin might be one thousand and nineteen years old, but he's got at least one or two miracles in the bag."

So it was set, the game that nobody could ever think of: Besaid Aurochs starrin' the Star of the Zanarkand Abes versus a new formed team also starrin' the Star of the Zanarkand Abes. What a show this'll be, ya?

**Author's Note: **Not really much of anything to say at this point. I mean, the next chapter's pretty self-explanatory. It's gonna be a blitz game. \

I guess I could just say that, for those who read Eternal Love, yes, I'm going to have the Tidal Surge in it. It'll make for a nice climax point to the chapter. D Till then, ciao y'all!


	8. A Game for the Record Books

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Notes:** Was I lying about this chapter coming out within a few days? Huh huh?

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 7: (Part I) The Night Before**

Tidus

I can't believe that Shuyin thinks he can out-blitz me. When it comes to something like blitzball, "There's none better than the star of the Zanarkand Abes!"

"Yea, that doesn't mean much this time around. After all, you might be the star of the show, but I was in the spotlight and scoring in all sense of the word way back in REAL version of the city." Well, obviously Shuyin said that. Pff, the guy's got way too much ego.

It was night already and it was decided that tomorrow, we'd all fly in the Celsius to Luca and have ourselves a little exhibition. It was Brother that called in the game to Luca. I think he said it would be the "spectacular flapping fluttering Gullwings and the shadow man from Zanarkand to play the loser Aurochs of Besaid".

Brother had this thing to him, though. It was like he was on my case ever since I got back. He didn't like the idea that Yuna liked me or something. The weird part about it was that he was technically Yuna's cousin so having a crush like that wasn't healthy and… so wasn't gonna happen for him. And he thinks that just because he's got it in for me he can call the Aurochs a bunch of losers? Hmph, tomorrow'll show him who's the losers.

Sleep wasn't really going to happen tonight. I was just too excited about the game. Well, I decided that if I had to lose sleep, I'd make Shuyin lose sleep, too. I went quiet like a ninja and crept up to the Auroch's hut. Yea, Shuyin was still lodged there meaning he probably spent the better part of the night making my team fraternize with the enemy. Well, that won't matter after he ends up exhausted beyond recovery and completely unable to even remember what secrets he learned. Slowly, I inched the rest of the way to where I remembered was Shuyin's bed. The great part about it was that he was right at the back, meaning that to get to him, all I had to do was get under the sheet and crawl a few more inches after that. I got to the spot and began to fiddle with the fabric, but it was sealed pretty well. Hehe, guess those that live in huts know how to keep them up, eh? Well, it took some doing, but soon enough, I managed to pull myself into the hut. Of course, I did also manage to hit the back of my head against a table when I did, but no pain no gain, right? Besides, the noise didn't even stir my snoring victim. If only I could laugh like one of those crazy mad doctors or vampires now.

With a grin, I rubbed my hands together, slowly tip-toeing my way next to the man who the fayth made me from…

"What do you want?" Could I have hung my jaw lower than I did, I'd probably have done it. I thought the guy was asleep, but just as I was about to get him, he just woke up like he knew I was coming.

"But… but… how!"

"You mean, how did I not see your surprise attack?" He said lazily, "Well, it's kinda hard to miss a lunkhead trying to pull a ninja on you. Tell me, did that encounter with the table hurt? Oh, and next time you wanna sneak up on somebody, make sure your route doesn't cause too much of a ruckus? Squeezing yourself under that sheet wasn't exactly the faintest of tactics."

"You-you're just upset that you didn't think of it first!" Yea, I know, really really lame comeback.

Even in the dark, I could distinctly make out Shuyin's eyes blink a couple of times before he finally said, "You know that didn't make sense, right? See, it would've if I was actually bothering to do whatever it was that you were planning. Anyway, now that you've got me up, what do you wanna do? Guess we could head over to the beach and see if we can snag some fiends. Either that or we could just chat, but with all I've been saying around here, I think you'd be bored."

I seriously thought about it for a minute. I mean, on the one hand, I could get him on the beach and beat the tar outta the guy before tomorrow. Wouldn't that be a game plan? Then again, with what happened the first time I tried to fight the guy, he nailed me pretty hard. Then there was the talking. I wasn't really much for idle chitchat. Actually, the only real time I stuck around for long-winded stories was with Yuna, but that was because her long-winded stories kinda applied to me and I could feel where she was going with it. When Rikku was worried about Yuna's safety during the pilgrimage, I had a little more attention focused on her, too. I don't really know, but she always felt like a little sister to me. It was probably her age. Out of all of Yuna's guardians, she'd been the youngest, not to mention the last to join us meaning she was the most out of practice. Now, listening to Shuyin yack could end up like that, but the most likely scenario is… I'm gonna fall asleep in the middle and he's gonna kick me hard.

"Uh, ya know this conversation has two parties involved in it." Shuyin's sarcasm quickly brought my mind back into the hut.

"Oh right. Well, whatever we do, we'd better get out of here before we wake one of the Aurochs." I suggested, moving back to the flap I had crawled in from.

"Okay… but you know you're not sneaking in anymore. The front flap is perfectly usable." With that, Shuyin slowly walked out of the hut.

I quickly got my foot out of the bottom of the sheet and rushed slowly, if it's even possible to do that, out the front of the hut. When I got clear of the hut, I found Shuyin, sitting on the ground, staring carelessly up at the stars of the night sky. "You can see them clearer here than in Zanarakand, huh?"

To that, he kinda lowered his head and I could notice he trembled just a little bit from my mentioning Zanarkand. "Yea… you could always see the stars much better out of those machina cities…"

"… I know I love watching the sunrises of Zanarkand. Did I get that from you, too?" I asked, trying to bring him happy memories of his life because, by the looks of it, like him or hate him, he really had a hard life.

"If you use it to soothe your nerves, then yes. It always calmed me down. It always let me put my life into focus. Actually, the last time I saw Lenne back in the safety of our home was when I was watching the sunrise. She was going to the front that night… My focus became saving Lenne no matter what the cost." After he finished, he sighed and went back to staring at the stars.

"Haha, yea, the first time I told Yuna about the sunrise was when I was trying to get her to quit her pilgrimage in Macalania. I was also kinda thinking of any way I could to keep her safe. Of course, she still went with going after Sin instead of finding a way back to my Zanarkand, but, in the end…"

"In the end, you succeeded where I failed. You're a good guy. I guess I just had too many problems within that kept me from accomplishing what you did."

"Well, I wasn't… It was more the Fayth's idea than mine. He told me that we needed to use the power of the fayth to vanquish Sin and that doing so, it meant the dream would fade… that I would fade."

"Yea, and with that, you still went ahead and fought and faded. You didn't really care what happened to you, did you? It was the same with me. I stormed Bevelle single-handedly with the sole purpose of getting myself killed to keep her safe. Actually, I think it still could've worked… if only she hadn't stopped me. I had and still could have perfect control of Vegnagun. If she was only fighting on the front like I thought she was, those machina would be drawn back to Bevelle once the activation sequence was carried out. I could've taken out Bevelle and…"

"… killed thousands upon millions of innocent lives. You'd be a murderer. Lenne, she definitely knew that and set out to stop you. You know, in that sense, you didn't even fail her. You did what you knew could save her, but she just didn't…" I never got to finish that sentence.

Shuyin got up in a flurry and grabbed me by the neck, lifting me off the ground and clenching tightly, "DON'T YOU TELL ME SHE WANTED TO DIE! NOBODY WANTS TO DIE!"

I struggled, his grip being pretty strong, but I managed to utter the following words: You did.

After hearing that, he quickly let go, falling onto his knees and putting a hand to his forehead. Again, I could see that he was trembling a bit. Just about a couple of seconds later, his right hand punched the ground. That was all I needed to see so I went over to him and put my left hand on his back.

"Hey, a thousand years ago, remember? Yuna told me this was all a thousand years ago. Just think of it the way Yuna, I, and I'm sure Lenne, too, would think of it. You were ready to die for her to save her life. She was ready to sacrifice her life to make sure you didn't lose your humanity. Yuna didn't want me to save her the way I did, but it was more acceptable because it was out of the greater good. What you're talking about was the deaths of many people who didn't even have any part to do with the Machina War. It wouldn't be right and she didn't want to be saved that way."

"Whatever the case, you still succeeded where I failed. Besides, with what Bevelle's done, can there actually be any innocent lives in there?" He asked, taking a deep breath after to recollect himself.

"… Yuna came from Bevelle. Her father, Lord Braska, he came from Bevelle. Auron lived in Bevelle at some point in time to have been Braska's guardian. Just because there's a huge screen of evil doesn't mean there can't be a ray of light hidden in the fog, right?"

Shuyin looked up and looked at me oddly, "… how… poetic of you…"

I laughed and put a hand behind my head, "I've been catching up with the times. A lot of books around here are poetic like that."

"Well, Zanarkand had it fair share of flowery speech, too, but since summoners weren't a part of your Zanarkand, you wouldn't know that. Anyway, Bevelle might be better nowadays, but back then, it was a city full of filth. Believe me, I'm one of the people who would love ever so much never to see the muck that adulterates our world. Unfortunately, Areth destroyed that part of me. In my eyes, Bevelle is scum and nothing more. I don't know if that'll ever change now."

"Well, that can always be discussed later on, but hey, at least you're saying Zanarkand again." I pointed out.

Shuyin smiled slightly, "Like Yuna's told me, like Lenne's said, and like you just added, 'a thousand years ago.' It's probably time I moved on."

The rest of the night was spent just like that: sitting outside the guest hut, staring up at the clear stars of Besaid… Maybe this Shuyin guy isn't so bad after all.

**Chapter 7: (Part II) A Game for the Record Books**

Tidus

Yesterday night was no sleep. Well, at least my plan did kinda work. Shuyin was up thinking about what he should be doing with his second chance at life and I was just listening to him babble on since, even that boring monologue of a conversation couldn't put me to sleep for this game. I was just thinking too far into this. It was obvious that Shuyin himself really couldn't care less about the game. He was too busy figuring out what to do with himself. It was probably just like how I felt when I first came to Spira. Everything just seemed to fall apart. Must be just the same, especially for a guy who's been dead for those thousand years I thought I had traveled back then.

I was the first to reach the lockers in Luca when we arrived. The ride was very loud. Rikku never stopped talking. She bounced around, psyching her team, and kinda pissed Paine off at that. Shuyin was very busy fending off questions from Cid about what he was gonna do if Yuna or Rikku was about to get pegged. It didn't really help his case when he joked back by telling the guy he'd cringe and go "oooh" and see if they were alright. Cid started with the extreme interrogation then and all the while, Paine kept staring a hole into the guy. She still didn't trust him, probably still hated him for all that stuff he did to her and her friends, and in all likelihood wanted so much to have his head on a pike displayed in her room. Yuna was constantly trying to get away from Rikku to talk to me, but that didn't happen because she'd just stick her tongue out at me and say, "You can't Yunie! That'd be fraternizing with the enemy!" I love that girl.

Anyway, I wasted no time in prepping. I did every stretch I could remember and every warm-up shot I could think of off the top of my head before I went to the book. This game would be tough. I mean, I'm sure I could win, but I'd have to know exactly what I was doing. Shuyin's just as much a blitzer as I was so he'd be highly seasoned. The only edge I probably had on him was that he'd spent a thousand years of death without blitzball and a lot of his life fighting the war with Bevelle. He might be a little rusty from all that time, but for a guy who had the amount of experience I had, he wouldn't be caught off guard for long. My only real strategy would be to either take him out early on, or score at least five goals before the second half. In any case, the strategy was to get ahead while he's still out of it because once he gets back into the game, it'll be very hard to make moves without him intercepting.

The gang showed up pretty soon. Letty and Jassu started hurling a ball as fast as they could to each other and trying to block. Those two were pretty decent defenders for the Aurochs. We had two new guys, now, a Vilucha and Beclem. Vilucha was a pretty decent shot and Beclem was a nice third defender or backup shot. Most of them seemed a little awkward thinking about going against their former captain and coach, but Beclem actually seemed to enjoy that fact. Those two didn't really see eye to eye at times. Yuna told me that during the fight against Shuyin, the Besaid temple was flooded with fiends. Beclem wanted to just burn it down, the fiends with them, but Wakka, being Wakka, decided to go in and fight the fiends all off. They got into an argument about responsibilities that Wakka eventually lost because his primary responsibility nowadays was to be there for his son.

Shuyin

My first game since I died. You hear stories all the time about a blitzer who hadn't played in years and how his game is totaled. Then, you hear other stories about another blitzer who'd stopped for a long while also, but he still got back into shape and led a stunning victory… Wonder how a story about a dead blitzer who'd been smoldering in defeat for a thousand years in a cave and then brought back to life would go. Well, at least this game would show if I still had it.

"Hey, are you alright?" Rikku asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder, "You seem kinda out of it."

Was I? If I was out of it, what was there left for me? I was a blitzer all my life. The only other talent I have is swordsmanship and I can't exactly be a warrior forever. I was given a second chance. The first thing to do is find Lenne. After that, everything's just a huge blur. My life was over a millennium ago and everything's changed since then. If I lost blitzball, there wasn't really much I could say for myself. My second chance at life would wiz by and I'd have nothing to show for it.

"Hey, are you there? Say something Shuyin." Yuna added, waking me from my thoughts of the future.

"Yea… I'm alright… I just… I hope I still remember how to play this game."

That froze both of them for a bit, but Paine walked up very soon afterward. I looked up to meet her face to face and I was expecting some sort of sneer, but instead, she just frowned like she was disappointed and slapped me square across the face.

"Is that the talk of a champion? Is that what's become of the horrific evil that was Shuyin? You were a powerful entity of destruction just a few months ago and now you're sounding like a desperate man clinging to a thin strand of life. What's happened to you?"

Everybody stared at her then. She'd started this off hating me for what I'd done to her; for what I'd done to all her friends. She'd been dreaming of my blood on her sword ever since she found out I was responsible for destroying her life. And now here she was, trying to get me back into shape.

"Paine…"

Again she slapped me. "I don't want to hear excuses! You ruined my life two years ago. I'll never forgive you for that. However, you think I'm just going to let you wallow in self-pity well, I'd kill you first. We helped bring Lenne's words to you so you'd return to the man you once were, not turn into this pathetic heap. If you want to win this game, what do you do? What do you THINK you should do?"

I nodded. She was right. If I wanted to keep my blitzball skills, then the only thing to do is… "Victory…"

With a small smile, she patted me on the cheek a few times, "Just remember, even though we had this lovely moment and you asked me to partake in this game so nicely yesterday, it still doesn't change the fact that I still don't trust or like you."

I smiled back, "Don't worry, when it comes time, you can have your win, too."

Tidus

The Aurochs headed out for the sphere pool and we all jumped right in. On the other side, Yuna, Rikku, Wakka, Shuyin, and the rest of them swam to meet us. Shuyin looked at me with a very serious stare. It meant one thing to anybody who knew blitzball well. He was sizing the team up. He was already figuring out who'd be slower, faster, stronger, weaker, and that meant he didn't really forget anything. The only thing to see now was if he could still play the way he did before.

Together, me and Shuyin took our spots in the center and the blitz off started. We both swam after the ball, but thankfully, I managed to grab it before he did. He was moving a bit slower, which was what I had expected. It'd been too long since his last game and he just didn't have the training in him anymore.

Without any hesitation, I swam toward the goal. Keepa and Vilucha were near me so the tactic was working well. Basically, any one of us had enough skill in scoring to get the point. I doubt Yuna or Rikku really know what they're doing. When I disappeared two years ago, Yuna hadn't even been able to hold her breath for longer than a minute so as far as she'd come, it couldn't have been enough. As I got ever closer to the goal, Shuyin moved in, shooting from side to side. I knew what he was doing. It was a great defensive maneuver that anyone with speed could use. He was throwing me off course. With having to dodge him, he just had to come from the right side to herd me into a good path for him. Of course, I knew how to counter that. Simply said, if he wanted to guide me into an ambush, I'd just take a new course. When he came at me from the left, I sped back the other way, letting his confused self dart right on ahead of me. Then, I passed the ball to Vilucha who immediately went for an invisible shot and our first goal of the game. Buddy wasn't the best at this game, after all.

The next blitz off, Shuyin got the ball. I actually went in slow just to see how much he lost. From what I saw, it wasn't a lot, but still effectively good enough for us to clinch this match. He darted towards our goal with Rikku, Cid, and Brother heading up from behind. Rikku caught up with him pretty soon and Cid and Brother packed it in towards the back for a distance shot. To test out Shuyin, I went in with the same move he pulled on me and tried to herd him. That was a mistake. Unlike me, he didn't even have to move back to lose me. Instead, he slithered all around me and started herding me. Just before he capitalized, I pulled off a back flip to get the ball away from him. Not only did I miss, but right after, Cid tackled me right to the bottom of the pool. Letty and Jassu blocked Brother and Shuyin, but that left Rikku open. Only Beclem was blocking her, but she was too fast for the guy. Shuyin lobbed her an easy one and she went in for the goal. Jassu left Shuyin and went to stop Rikku and ended up playing right into the trap. Rikku hard passed it back to Shuyin who did a sidewinder kick and made the goal. His shots were deadly. Datto didn't stand a chance of blocking.

Shuyin

It was tied, one to one. In other words, it was going perfectly. I hadn't really lost much of anything and with just two blitz offs, I already figured out all their abilities. By the looks of Wakka, he'd figured that out, too. This game wouldn't be overwhelmingly difficult. I swam to Wakka and asked him his prognosis of the game. With his expertise in his own players' abilities, we had a leg up on my "twin". By his judgment, Keepa and Tidus would be their weakest link as they were the top shots. If they wanted to score, chances were that one of them would shoot. As for defense, Jassu and Letty were the prime contenders. So the strategy for the next blitz off was to have the Aurochs get the ball. My "twin" would immediately go for a score and Wakka'd stop him. He'll go for a pass to Keepa or Jassu. That's when Rikku comes in with her speed. She'll snatch the ball right from under their noses, pass it to me, and I'd pretend to go for it. No doubt they'd know I'd be our side's prime shot, but instead, I'd lob it to Cid who'd have the least amount guarding him since they'd never suspect he'd be capable of playing well. He'll be conveniently slacking off somewhere in a corner just as it gets to him and then he'll jet… hopefully. With his strength, his shot should make it through without too much trouble.

Blitz off! I purposely let him have the ball and went into my remora mode, sticking to him as much as possible. Finally, I saw Keepa and left a space wide enough for him to spot. As planned, he passed and the ball went speeding toward his teammate. Rikku hurried and intercepted, got in range and made the pass to me. Unfortunately, that's when our plan started to go downhill. Jassu got behind me just in time and made me fumble, letting the ball drift. Wakka raced at it to recover, but the other Zanarkand Star got in his way and it just kept drifting… until Yuna caught it…

"Pass it here, Yuna!" He screamed out, an obvious ploy. He wanted Yuna to fall for his trap and pass it directly to me, seeing how I was guarded by two players. Letty had moved in on me to replace my duplicate.

She laughed easily and commented on his words, "Not going to fall for it." With a wink, she passed it towards me, making her boyfriend's smirk apparent even as I stared at his backside.

I scanned my options quickly as I didn't want his plan to actually succeed, even with it playing through almost to conclusion. The ball kept coming towards us every second and the two of them readied for an interception. They readied so much that they lightened their guard on my movement slightly. Of course, they had me sandwiched in, but a looser trap so I knew my opening. As the ball came in, Letty grabbed it and the Blitz Ace went towards the goal. Yuna gasped as she realized the trick she'd fallen for, pouting at her boyfriend before going to block against him. It was my chance. I quickly tackled Letty from behind, rolled against his back, hands outstretched, grabbed the ball from in front of him, and kicked him in the chest as I finished the roll over his shoulder to propel me straight at the goal. Their goalie looked on in shock at what I managed to pull off, but I knew I wouldn't be making the shot. Right as I saw him return to defensive position, I faint passed it to Cid, but he wasn't in position anymore so I nodded over to Rikku and she asked her father for a pass. When she had the ball, she quickly went up above the goal and pushed away from the ball, putting her legs toward it. She scrunched and then kicked, nailing the blitz ball straight into the goal, right past their goalie, Datto.

The next blitz off, the both of us egged one another to get the ball, seeing how my strategy had weakened his confidence enough to make him cautious. Finally, when the ball got right in line with the goal, since neither of us had gone to get it, I kicked it straight into him, knocking him for a loop. The ball bounced off him and came back to me and I performed the "Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III" straight into the goal for a third point. The score was three to one in the first half…

Tidus

I slammed a fist into one of the lockers when we all got back to recover for the second half. "Dammit!"

This game was turning out to be very difficult. Shuyin and Wakka were very seasoned and they knew how to use their less effective players properly. Even when Yuna made that rookie mistake, Shuyin saw the weakness in Letty's offensive experience and took advantage. The game was half over and we were already down by two points. It was time to take it up a notch.

When we got back out there, I took the ball immediately on the blitz off. Shuyin headed at me, but I knew that was only to psyche me out. I pulled back a bit and he went off on his merry way, going off to guard Keepa. Wakka took me on and I maneuvered around him without much difficulty. Rikku tried to swoop in and steal the ball, but she wasn't as trained as I was so I saw her coming and dodged. Next up was my Yuna. She tried to pull of the same thing that I did just before the break, putting her arms on my shoulders. She did this really cute face and made me blush, but I knew what she was doing so just before Rikku got behind me, I brought the ball to my chest, gave Yuna a quick peck on the cheek and ducked under both.

At the point both Shuyin and Wakka were headed for me with Cid following from the side. I waited for the right moment and pushed up just before those three sandwiched me in. Cid slammed into Wakka and they effectively took each other out. Finally, I was in line for the shot just as Shuyin swam up in front.

"Hey, Shuyin! Watch this!" I told him, dropping the ball to my feet.

With a wink, I kicked the ball to Shuyin who was smirking. The ball hit his arms when he brought them up to his chest. It knocked him back and popped back to me. Seeing how he wasn't taken out, I performed the Sphere Shot and kicked it hard to him. Unfortunately, that didn't even take him out. Instead, he swung one leg and kicked it hard, cancelling out the speed of my shot. He cringed so I knew it hurt him to pull off that move, but it still didn't stop him from using his good leg to kick it back at me. I blocked like he did before and it bounced back to him. He quickly did a Sphere Shot and hit me square in the chest, taking me out of the round.

When I came to, I noticed that the score was two to three. We scored, but I didn't know how. I got back into place for the next blitz off and managed to get the ball because stopping my Sphere Shot from before had done some damage to Shuyin's leg, making his speed slower than normal. I sped past him and ran into both Yuna and Brother. Brother stood right in front of Yuna with his arms stretched out like he was acting as her shield. The man was taking overprotective to a new level. Yuna stayed behind him and stuck her tongue out at me, scrunching up her nose while she was at it. It looked so cute that I kinda went into a daze from it until Keepa shouted out to me to pass the ball to him. Brother was so into his "protect Yuna" mode that I just had to easy pass it to Keepa without much trouble. Yuna quickly went after Keepa, but Brother having been facing me the whole time, didn't even know Yuna left. I swam past him while he kept facing me, arms still outstretched. He finally understood that Yuna wasn't behind him when he went to check behind him to see if she was alright.

Yuna had Keepa pretty well guarded, something that came as a surprise to me since I've never seen her like this. On her pilgrimage, she was much more reserved. She'd changed. I knew it ever since the day I came back. The outfit was enough of a change already, but she became a lot bolder. Then, when Shuyin came back, she showed a sign of fear and helplessness that I also never saw. Shuyin had a real impact on her. Anyway, she had Keepa pinned so he had no choice but to pass it to Beclem. Cid was guarding, but that wasn't much. Cid's heavy build and age slowed his reaction speed so Beclem got the pass and moved in on the goal. Buddy was good enough to stop his shot, but he passed the ball at the last minute to Botta above him and the quick switcheroo confused Buddy enough to make the point. The game was tied and it was the final minute.

In the blitz off, Shuyin got the ball, but I was on him. It was the last minute and I didn't want to go into overtime. I never understood that part about me. I just always hated to go into overtime. Shuyin quickly passed the ball to Rikku who had done that impressive… whatever shot it was. I knew he probably wanted her to go for a shot if she had the chance so I waved Jassu in to block. She passed the ball to Wakka, who went in at top speed. I quickly got Botta to cover him, but Shuyin took advantage of my distraction and sped off. I tried to catch up and managed to get to him again, but Wakka didn't even try to pass it to him. He tackled Botta hard and moved in closer to the goal. Finally, Letty got the drop on him and stopped him in his tracks, making me think we were out of trouble, but…

Shuyin

Our strategy in the last ten minutes was a risky one, but Wakka was right for calling it. We had to pretend we were desperate for a quick goal since that would be the obvious tactic. I'd get the ball and immediately pass it to Rikku who'd just jet. If anything happened, she'd go for Wakka and he'd jet. This was all a part of the façade to lure the Aurochs into a huge close range defensive and into trouble.

That play from before, when I knocked out dream Zanarkand's top player, had scored them a goal. What happened was that after the ball from my Jecht Shot had bounced off of him, Keepa sped in and grabbed it before I could perform the Jecht Shot v2. Then, he passed it to Beclem who gave it to Letty who put it back to Keepa and before I could save the play, Beclem had the ball and put it in with an invisible shot for the goal.

This time, I wasn't going to screw up. I hated going to overtime ever since meeting Lenne. In that championship game with Bevelle, I tried so hard not to let Areth get the best of me just so I wouldn't go into overtime. All of that started with just wanting to impress Lenne because I loved her so much. She was my motivation for a lot of the amazing things I've done in my life, the most recent being the complete takeover of the Farplane. I wonder if the dream was like that. If he had so many aspects of my personality, yet lacked so many other bits of my personality, I wonder if he has this part. Seeing how it was part of my public personality, he probably should have, but the reasoning behind it was pretty private. It'd be amusing if he had the same desire to beat the overtime, but hadn't any idea why.

In any case, I said I was going to prove I was better than he was and I said I didn't want to go into overtime so the plan was set and staged. Wakka had just been stopped by Letty, but that's when the true goal of the play went into effect. Wakka quickly passed the ball back to Paine and, by this time, all the Aurochs were close to the goal. With the other me following, I quickly pulled a one-eighty and sped back to the center of the pool. Paine swam to me and tossed the ball above me and I torpedoed into it, throwing it up and out of the pool. While it soared, I waited close to the rim of the sphere, biding my time until it reached the correct position. Once it drew down to the final few seconds, the Aurochs were closing in, a maneuver that would prove futile, as well as, even better for my move…

Tidus

We all watched their game plan in shock. Wakka passed it to a completely open Paine towards the other side of the sphere pool. Shuyin quickly darted back there and received the ball completely unguarded. We were expecting a full out rush, but they just wanted to do that so there'd be a perfect opening outside the scoring range. Without any extra time wasted, I got Jassu, Letty, and Keepa to head after Shuyin and stop him from making the Sphere Shot, since the only move that looked like that was that shot and it was one of my best. Also, just in case we didn't make it in time, I left everybody else on the goal to block. Even the Sphere Shot couldn't get through four guys.

Then, something weird happened. The blitz ball went out of the pool, but Shuyin didn't. I didn't understand why he didn't follow it. In any case, we had to get to him before he got to the ball so I got all of them to continue following me.

Shuyin

… Moments later, the blitz ball reached the surface of the pool and I made a forward flip, my leg penetrating the surface of the Sphere Pool. My heel hit the ball hard and, with a trail of white, the blitz ball rocketed straight into the goal, passing all four guards, and through to the wall on the other side. The score was four to three and we had clinched the game.

Tidus

It was unbelievable. Whatever Shuyin did, that shot was amazing! I… I never even knew there was a move like that, but however it was done, it couldn't possibly be defended against. The speed he got on the shot made it practically a missile. Actually, it was just about as fast as the Sphere Shot, but only when I used it in battle where no water could slow its motion. Simply… incredible… If I had to lose, I'm glad it was to that.

Shuyin

The lot of us celebrated in the back, wowing over the victory shot. Wakka had found the ball and it was flattened. We all got a good laugh out of that, especially when he said, "Gee, and the losin' team's supposed ta get this as a partin' gift, ya", and pointed to the deflated piece.

"Shuyin, what was that move you used? I've never seen anybody use it before, not even him." Yuna asked me.

With a smile, I told them about my one on one game with my father in the Farplane. "So, I actually have to thank pops, the captain, for our win." Taking the "ball" from Wakka, I held it high, "Here's to ya, old man."

Everybody got a good laugh out of that and, after an hour or so, we were ready to head on home. With just one game of blitzball, I think I've really started to come alive again. A thousand years dead, but I was slowly returning to the world of the living. Maybe… I had some purpose with this new life. Now, the only thing left to do is find Lenne… I'll find you, my love. I promise. We'll live out the life we lost so very long ago… finally…

**Author's Notes: **So, Shuyin's got some game, eh? How'd you guys like the return of the Tidal Surge and the Blitz Strike?

In the next chappie, I'm thinking we should finally break up this lovefest and throw in something weird. See ya then!


	9. The Calm before the Storm

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Notes:** Where have all me readers gone? I haven't gotten a review in forever. -sob-

Well, as I said in the last chapter, it's time to throw in something new. Weird is entirely up to you.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 8: The Calm before the Storm**

Yuna

I was so mixed up. Could I trust Shuyin this time? Everything he's done up till now should have told me to have confidence in him and my heart wanted me to trust him, but my mind never let go of the prospect that he was faking this "good boy" attitude like he'd done to me as an unsent. It hurt so much to hear those evil words being spoken by the face of the man I loved with all my heart. I didn't know how I could ever come to forgive Shuyin for doing that to me and allow myself to trust him again.

A week had passed since he initially arrived here on Besaid. Since the blitzball game four days ago, Shuyin's been very hopeful in his new life. At times, he'd even leave on sphere hunts with Rikku and Paine. I was taking a break ever since I finally got him back so our YRP had become just RP. I think Lulu and Wakka were actually glad for that. I'd worried them greatly when I took off to become a Gullwing. Now that Shuyin was around, my guess is he's become the replacing member of the Gullwings. I could just picture it.

_"Gullwings ready!" Shuyin'd say, pulling his pistols up in the air. Paine would swing her sword and pose to his right while Rikku leaned against them with a wink._

"So what do you think?" Rikku asked, still standing in that position with the other two.

For a minute, I thought I was still daydreaming about the new SRP. But, as I continued to stare, I realized I was seeing them and they were posing right outside my hut.

"Ah!" I screamed, falling back.

"Yuna, you okay?" Shuyin asked, the first to come to my aid.

"Yunie!" Rikku yelped, soon after.

"I told you we'd scare her doing that." Paine stated coldly, shrugging where she stood.

When I regained my bearings, I just had to ask, "When'd you formulate this new group?"

They explained to me that, since Shuyin didn't have much of a job on our Spira anymore and since he'd need more of a permanent team to be a blitzer again, he'd be better off as a sphere hunter until he could find something else to do. Besides, with so many ruins of old machine cities still unexplored, having someone who'd been in those cities at least once in his life would be helpful for navigating. I'd been replaced!

"Don't worry. It's not like I could replace you. I'm just here for the time being until you come back." Shuyin assured, offering a kind smile.

They also told me that Brother was alright with adding a member who looked so much like him because, even with the fiasco of his trying to blow up Spira, he didn't show any interest in me the way his twin did so Brother was okay with him being around. Rikku said he wasn't so sure about her status with him, but big brother overprotective syndrome would kick in only if Shuyin tried anything and not before he's done so.

"So do you want to come with us this time?" Rikku asked, hugging me close and pleading for me to say yes with her puppy eyes, "Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

Well, I didn't really have anything planned for the day, maybe something at night, but I wasn't going to tell them that. It had been a while since I'd gone sphere hunting and I did want to spend some time with Rikku and Paine like in the blitz game.

We headed off for the Celsius just like we'd done before, except Shuyin was actually with us this time and not waiting in the heart of the Farplane. After we boarded, Buddy escorted us to the bridge where our _graceful leader_, Brother, awaited his troops. This time, there were sphere waves being picked up somewhere in the Moonflow, which Rikku believed was coming from the sunken machina city. It was there, over two years ago, that she had helped the Al Bhed kidnap me to prevent me from completing my pilgrimage. When Brother had wondered how they would manage to get the sphere before their oxygen tanks ran out, Rikku had suggested they see if Shuyin knew anything about the city. That's how Shuyin got involved. He'd navigate the city for us by memory and, hopefully, we'd find that sphere before our time was up.

The trip was nothing unexpected. Rikku hovered over Shuyin like his own personal shadow, desperately seeking more knowledge of his past. Paine grunted from the side while polishing her sword furiously, glancing over at the two from time to time and immediately looked away if she sensed I was following her actions. Brother would also grunt, but only because Shuyin reminded him of my special someone and Rikku's growing closeness with him only reminded Brother of how he "lost" me to him. Unfortunately, Shinra had gone back to the Al Bhed. I heard he was aiding some of the architects in the reconstruction of Home. He was making sure that the more easily exposable weaknesses of the structure were built with better shielding, reinforced steel, and all sorts of precautions that would ensure the new Home's impregnability. I would have liked Shuyin to meet the boy who helped us so many times during our quest to stop his terrorism. Perhaps after the mission, we could take him there.

"So then you sliced off his head, right?" Rikku chirped, anxious for Shuyin to finish his latest story.

He sighed, "Rikku, I've told you this story before. You already know what happened. I just rolled to the side and slammed my sword into him after he landed. The vampire didn't stand a chance."

"I know. I just can't believe how many different Aeons were around back then. Can you imagine if they were all still around? Yunie would never get them all. Then, I wouldn't have had to worry so much about getting to Zanarkand and watching her sacrifice herself to beat Sin. We'd still be stuck somewhere at a temple, figuring out the cloister and getting up to the Chamber of the Fayth. And after that fiasco in Bevelle, it would've slowed us down even more!" She cheerfully exclaimed, moving her hands to her words like she was showing him exactly what happened so long ago.

"Rikku! That wouldn't have stopped me or even slowed us down. If I needed more Aeons to be high summoner, I'd go double the pace to keep Spira safe." I countered, deciding that I might as well enter this little conversation of their's.

"Aw, Yunie. It doesn't matter. That was over two years ago. It's long over and done with so I'm gonna put all of it behind me."

"Oh? Then, how come you still talk about it that much? I think you might be making Shuyin a little bored." I joked, teasing Rikku as we always have.

"Yunie! Don't be such a meanie. Just because I talk about it doesn't mean I haven't put it behind me. You can talk about the past." With that she stuck her tongue out in her playful manner.

"My my, such animosity between you two. Kinda boosts a guy's ego, what with having two lovely girls battling it out over little old me." Shuyin interjected, using that blitzer charm.

"Who said they were fighting over you? Yuna and Rikku have always been like this. Don't flatter yourself." Paine grumbled in her spot, still polishing her sword.

"Dr. Paine, it's good to see a sign of life in you." He replied, probably not the best choice of words.

But, to my surprise, it wasn't Paine that spoke any objection to his statement. It was Brother. "Hey, newcomer! You be quiet. This my airship. Don't talk. Rule on Celsius."

Shuyin gave him a funny look, glanced over at Rikku who just waved her hands to disregard our leader, but Shuyin just smiled and walked off to the lift. It was definitely different. His eyes weren't transfixed with madness like it had been only some months ago. He seemed almost like… him, if only I hadn't the memory of what he would have done in the past. No, Shuyin was not like him and would never be. He even said himself that they were different entirely. Yes, that's right. Shuyin made up the man I loved with all my heart, but he himself could never measure up to his creation. Not in a thousand years and not even in a million. My love was special.

"Yuna… Why are you just standing there?" Paine grunted, interrupting my thinking.

"Oh… I'm sorry, Paine… Uh, how close are we?"

"We should arriving to Moonflow shortingly. Have some little rest, yes Yuna?" Brother answered, waving me off to go to the cabin.

With a nod, I turned and started for the stairs, but Paine stopped me before I got my foot on the bottom step. "Yuna, don't let him get to you. I know how he can be… He's… he's starting to get to me, too, but just keep up your guard. As much as he claims to have changed, we all still know him for the crazed unsent who wanted to destroy Spira."

Again I nodded, not sure if I really wanted to believe what she held firm in her mind. It would have been the safe road. It was just that… ah… maybe I'm just too soft. I proceeded to the lift and took it down to the cabin. The short amount of time I had was long enough for me. I still didn't trust Shuyin enough to disregard his actions in the past. It may have just been too late for that. No matter what, he still had a choice after turning into an unsent. He still could have chosen not to head down the path he did. He had two years inside Nooj's body to discover that destroying Spira was wrong, but he went ahead anyway. That meant there was some evil inside him, evil that had decided long ago to make the path for him and guide him towards it. It would take more than wisecracking and a show of sincerity to make up for his crimes.

"Hello, Mish Yuuna." Barkeep greeted as I left the lift.

"Yunie! Duck!" Rikku squealed, pointing behind me.

Was Shuyin planning on surprising me? It wouldn't have been a shock. It was a matter of time before he turned on us again. Getting him to the Moonflow from Besaid was enough of a help in getting him close to Bevelle. He probably wanted to steal Vegnagun again. That's it. I had enough…

Taking out my Twin Bees, I turned and aimed them at Shuyin before he could… dump that bucket of water on me? "Whoa! Take it easy, Yuna. It'll get you wet, but that's no reason to shoot a guy, right?"

"Oh Shuyin, I'm so sorry!" I stammered, wide-eyed at the event unfolding before me.

Just water… I was going to shoot him because he was going to pull a prank on me. "It's alright. Not like it's the first time pranks nearly got me killed." He reassured, "Oh the things Rothel and I've done. You know, we went to Bevelle before the war and pulled off this amazing joke on two of their elites. Yea, this one time, Lenne went with Kirin to Besaid and I went over to hang out with Rothel. We ended up in Bevelle and the guy pasted the back wall of an alley with a thick coat of industrial strength glue and greased up the floor. Then, he went off to get some high official to fall for it while I finished up the trap with a sign that said 'Bevelle's Finest'. Wow, that guy was upset. It was hilarious!"

Another one of his attempts at making us believe he was good. It still didn't work on me, but Rikku was rolling on her bunk, giggling like a maniac. Maybe I should have separated those two earlier. It seemed she was all for his reformation. Deep down, my heart yearned to follow in Rikku's footsteps and accept Shuyin, but my brain told me otherwise. I knew it would be a foolish thing to do to forget about the past. The future is shaped by the actions of the past and Shuyin had done nothing back then that would grant him my trust. Even though Lenne trusted him, she'd taken his back to the Farplane. The simple fact that he was here again would show that he couldn't be trusted. He claimed that he had nothing to do with it, but he's lied before. Nothing would stop him from repeating it.

"Gullwings! To the bridge right away! We have landed in Moonflow!" Brother shouted over the intercom.

"Guess we should head 'em up and move 'em out." Shuyin stated in a strange way, jogging to the lift and holding the door for us.

"Yea, let's go get 'em!" Rikku added, hopping off the bedroom area and speeding off to the lift, as well.

"Yuna… you comin'?" Shuyin asked once Rikku had boarded.

To trust him or not. Perhaps this new mission will tell me the answer I want to know. With a nod, I hurried myself up and got aboard the lift. Within a few seconds, we were back on the bridge, Rikku rushing off first, playfully grabbing Paine's arm with a giggle. Paine tried to jerk her arm away, but my cousin was persistent. Shuyin was the next to exit the lift, walking casually down the stairs and taking his seat where Shinra used to spend hours upon hours developing all his gadgets. If you're planning on stabbing us in the back… My hands locked and loaded my pistols… you'll regret it.

The Moonflow was just as swampy as I had remembered it to be since I last came. It wasn't anything new. Wakka had said that there was a machina city down below that was behind its pollution. But for Shuyin, it seemed as though it pained him to see the river as it was. He was from one thousand years in the past. Perhaps the Moonflow was still clean in those days. Either way, we all noticed him sigh as he gazed into the murky waters.

"Okay, Gullwings! Time to be getting down to busyness." Brother ordered, the Celsius pulling away to his self-made "safe zone".

"Man, Guadosalam's seen better days." Shuyin muttered.

"What? Guadosalam is over there in that tree. You should know. Leblanc's chateau is there." Rikku stated to the former unsent, pointing over to the home of the defunct syndicate's leader.

To that, Shuyin only laughed, explaining his statement. "No, I mean the old Guadosalam. Funny how they didn't change the name, but I guess they wanted to keep the machina city in memory."

"Even if it was this machina city that made the Moonflow as filthy as it is." Paine tactlessly scowled, "Well, it wouldn't be the first time the guado were responsible for an atrocity. Isn't that right, Yuna?"

That was a shock, but she was right. I did tell her about when the guado attacked and murdered countless Al Bhed just to hand me back to Seymour for his selfish purposes. Rikku was a little more closed on the subject, which wasn't surprising. She was only fifteen at the time and she had to see friends die, the only home she's ever known burn to the ground, and after all that, Seymour almost had her executed with all my other guardians.

"Actually, aside from their natural affinity towards shadiness, the original Guadosalam was very advanced and well-designed. In fact, I'm pretty sure that without their sanitation program, the Moonflow would be even worse for wear than… with all the pollution it has now." Shuyin responded.

"But Wakka told me that it was the machina city that was the major cause for the condition of the river. That's why they were all eliminated." I replied, remembering how I was taught.

"Yuna, I thought the teachings of Yevon even stated that Sin was the reason there aren't any more machina cities."

"Yes, but that was only because Sin attacked anything it saw. The machina cities were still filled with contamination."

"Machina cities may have started off pretty dirty, but that was before people knew about sanitation and pollution control. Back in my days, one of the ways to tell if a city was thriving was to see how healthy its people was. Zanarkand had the best. Of course, back then, Zanarkand had the best of nearly everything, but still, this Yevon-related anti-machina sentiment's gone from fact to folklore. The Moonflow is the chief habitat for Shoopuffs and the Hypello that raise them. It used to end up in the delta and specialized creatures were there to ingest the waste and renew the soil with it. One day, those things went extinct. I'm somewhat at a loss on the history, but Guadosalam was built there to compensate."

"But that city was only built to show the magnificence of human technology. That's why the city was built-up on flimsy bridges across the width of the Moonflow." I argued, noting what Wakka told us that day on the Shoopuff, just before Rikku helped the Al Bhed kidnap me.

Shuyin smirked slightly, "Really, and here I thought Yevon's teachings were lost on you, lady summoner. It's true, the city of Guadosalam was built on top of the Moonflow. However… flimsy bridges? How unfortunate for Spira's future not to have learned enough Physics to know about structural integrity. Guadosalam was supported on dense expanses that could have supported the weight of a city three times the size. I'm sorry, Yuna, but all these ideas you've had and been taught about the past are misinformed."

Well, he was pretty sure of himself. Rikku's always trusted machina. Actually, I trusted both airships I'd ridden in and Home itself, which was nothing more than a miniature machina city on its own. Still, I lived nineteen years of my life knowing the horrors of machina cities. They couldn't all be "folklore" as Shuyin so kindly stated.

"Yunie, don't let it bother you so much. We all learned our lesson two years ago that Yevon's teachings was a bunch of poopie." Rikku told me, patting my on the shoulder before hopping over to stand by the man she'd grown so attached to.

"Enough chitting and chatting. Mission time is on still going. Be getting to work now Gullwings!" Brother yelled from our communicators.

"SORRY!" We all shouted together, all of us jumping into the muddy water.

Shuyin seemed right at home, even in such murkiness. Almost like our sphere hunting mission was a blitz game, he waved for us to split into two groups. Rikku and he would go down to the lower levels of the city, being the stronger swimmers they were, while Paine and I would search closer to the surface, in case we lost track of time and needed to get to the surface in a hurry. Part of me wanted to go with Shuyin instead, knowing that with Rikku alone with him, she could be in danger. What better alibi would he have than running into trouble down there and Rikku running out of air? Being a professional blitzer, he could argue that his breath lasted long enough while Rikku drowned and all he could do was get her body back to the surface, something he could definitely use to solidify his case with us. A murderer would dump the body, but a friend would try to preserve anything he could. The worst knowledge about this is that his idea did still make sense. Rikku knew more about diving into the depths than either Paine or I. The two of them should be able to stay down longer than we. I had to let Rikku go with him and hope that she was ready should Shuyin try anything.

Paine and I searched the roofs of each tower the submerged, ruined city contained and for the first hour, no results…

"Yuna, you know, looking for a sphere sometimes involves actual searching through the area, not just staring at where you last saw Rikku." Paine grunted.

"Oh, sorry!" I replied.

I guess I didn't even notice it. I just worried for my cousin. As much as Shuyin hurt me before, I hadn't been possessed by him. How hard must it have been to cope with that. Paine undoubtedly remembers. Nooj has yet to talk about it. Baralai is far more diligent in his New Yevon duties after that event. What was Rikku's take? When I was about to gain the Final Aeon and lose my life like all past defeaters of Sin, she became depressed. Since then, I've noticed that she's been following up on her goal of being more like Lulu and hiding her feelings to stay more focused. In my opinion, she was too young to know how to really do that. I'm nineteen and I can't hide all my emotions. Rikku's only seventeen. What does she know about containing her feelings?

Suddenly, Paine rushed over with her communicator out, "It's Rikku!"

I quickly took the communicator, "Rikku? What's wrong?"

"Come quick! Yunie, the column snapped! Shuyin and I are trapped down here!" My fears have been realized…

**Author's Notes:** -gasp- So what's to become of our lovely SRP? Will Yuna trust in Shuyin after this fiasco? Will Shuyin and Rikku be alright? Is Yuna right: is this a mere trick of Shuyin's to off one of the infamous YRP that defeated him only months before? Find out next time!


	10. The Depths Some Will Go

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Notes:** I sense a lack of interest in my latest story. sob Are all my reviewers gone from this story?

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 9: The Depths Some Will Go**

Rikku

Shuyin suggested that we separate into two groups to look around faster. At first, I didn't think it would be a good idea for him to suggest something like that. I mean, Yunie and Paine still weren't too happy about Shuyin's return. Yunie was kinda liking him now, but she couldn't trick me. I knew she wasn't sure what to make of Shuyin. Then, there was Paine. Boy, she started off hating the guy so much. You couldn't really blame her for that, of course. I mean, Shuyin did try to kill her and all her friends and ruined her life. It was the biggest surprise ever when she said she wanted to blitz with us. And then, it was an even bigger surprise than that when she went up to Shuyin in that game and slapped some confidence into the guy. Well, it was a start, but I'm sure she'd still love to kill him one day.

"Hey, Rikku, you comin'?" Shuyin called, swimming away from Yunie and Paine to go towards the lower levels of the machina city.

"Don't worry Yunie. We'll get that sphere and be back up in no time!" I told my cousin.

Together, we looked at the grounds of the city, seeing a few pyreflies floating around down there. There was nothing down there besides rubble, though. Too bad. Shuyin seemed happy about it even without finding anything. It looked like he was trying to find something besides a sphere, though.

"Whatcha lookin' for, Shuyin?" I asked him, swimming over and seeing nothing important.

"Hehe, sorry. I'm getting a little nostalgic here. You know, the guys had a game here a couple of seasons before I met Lenne. We found this place that was still under construction and they just finished up smoothing out the cement around an area they were planning to build some corporate headquarters just after the game was over. The guys were invited to put there handprints into the cement. Their Glories were gonna get the front side and we'd get the back side for beating them silly. I wonder if they're still around… Wishful thinking, I guess."

"Wow, I guess for a guy like you, you've got a lot of memories to look back at. There's just not enough time in the day, huh?"

"Yea… but I really should leave it behind. After all, everything about my Spira is long gone. Blitzball was the only thing to survive and even that's changed. We only had six players back then and your Spira only honored that while Yevon was still holding strong. I've moved on from the deaths of my past, but my heart's still clinging to the old Spira, the one I grew up with."

"It's understandable. I think about Home every now and then. It's only natural to think about happy times in the past. Sin's taken away a lot of good times, made them all into memories. Usually, people go to the Farplane to think about their memories."

"Hah, I keep my memories inside. It took me forever to go to the Farplane and visit my mother. I don't suppose I'd be willing to go with my sanity to see my other friends. No, my memories stay in my heart where it counts."

"Haha, you know, maybe Jecht was part Al Bhed because that sounds a lot like something I would say."

We searched along the base of the city some more, but still no sphere. It was pretty hard to look over all the bits and pieces of the machina city that broke off from the buildings and the oxygen tanks weren't going to hold out much longer. I swam around this big spiraling tower thing and noticed that the ground was kinda uneven. Looking closer, it almost looked like…

"Shuyin! Come quick!" I yelled from my communicator.

With his sword held in hand, he sped over, looking like he was ready to kill something. "What is it, Rikku?" He was looking all around for something.

I laughed at how serious he was being, "Oh you silly, I just called you over to look at this." With that said, I pointed at the floor, to a few specific cement slabs.

Shuyin looked closely, but he didn't seem to know what I was trying to show him. He kept looking and furrowing his eyebrows, but I don't think he got it. I had to laugh again.

"What are you trying to show me? All I see are rocks." He said, "If there was a sphere here, it would be glowing orange and we'd spot it in a flash."

"Shuyin! I'm trying to show you that!" I whined, pointing at the cracked dents in those slabs."

Shuyin took a closer look, "Oh wow, those are… They're handprints. You found them!"

Slowly, he moved closer to the floor, putting his left hand onto one of the handprints. "Hmm, this one's Rothel's."

"How can you tell?" I asked. Those things were older than a thousand by now. Even though they weren't worn away somehow, it would still be impossible to tell, right?

Shuyin smiled, "Out of all of us, Rothel's got the biggest hands. This handprint's too big for me so it has to be his."

"How slick of you, Mr. Detective." I kidded.

"Here, put your hand on one of these smaller ones." He said, "I'll tell you which of the two is Vena's and which is Kirin's."

I nodded and swam down to where he was and put my hand on the smallest looking handprint I could find. Surprisingly, it fit my hand pretty well. I had a sudden flash in my head and then, the water was gone. I was standing in a huge city, twice the size of Bevelle from what I could see. However, that building that I was in front of before was gone. Shuyin wasn't anywhere around. Where was I?

"Kirin? Hey, Kirin! Hey, I been wonderin' where you were. You okay? You look kinda lost, ya know? Excited 'bout the game?" Some man asked me, patting me on the shoulder with his black, fingerless glove.

"Uh… yea… maybe…" What should I tell him? I wasn't even Kirin. The last thing I remember, I was just swimming underwater with Shuyin. Who was he? Where was I? Was this Zanarkand?

"Kirin, ya sure you okay? If ya can't play, I'm sure that rookie, Drea, can cover for ya. Don't want you bein' in a game you ain't ready for, ya know?" He suggested.

"Uh… no, that's alright…" What was I saying! It was something in my mind. I just couldn't let down… the team?

"Heh, just like Shuyin. Ya know, the two o' you could be twins. Guess that's why ya joined together, eh?"

Shuyin! Wait, so then… That's right. If I was Kirin… I'm on the Zanarkand Abes! How did that happen?

"Haha, yea, guess so…" My mouth had a mind of its own! But… what was this feeling in my heart? It was almost like I was angry, but confused if that was what I wanted to be feeling. I hated this feeling.

"Alright then. Let's get goin', ya know? Game ain't gonna wait forever, ya know?"

I nodded and together, we headed in some direction to the SphereDome, I would assume. Instead, we went to someplace that looked a lot like Home, except with different colors and much wider than the machina structure. I had half a mind to ask the man what the place was called, but I thought it would just scare him so I decided to keep wondering it to myself.

"Hey kids an' cats! Look what I found." He shouted to the people in front of him once we got there.

There were about ten of them, each of them gathered around a bright glow in the center of the building. All of them were blitzers by the looks of things. They all had the same colored clothing. None of them even looked like anybody I would've known, but my mind was telling me that they were people I'd known for years. There was a woman with long red hair, in braids like mine. She was Vena, one of Shuyin's friends that he told me about. She was supposed to be engaged to Kion, their goalie. I saw… well found him really. He was kinda slumped over a bench, drooling all over the floor.

"Eww!" I squealed. Was Vena really engaged to that guy!

"Haha, Kion's always had that effect on people, eh Kirin?" A familiar voice said to me, coming closer from behind.

I turned around and Shuyin was right there. I froze. Did he do this to me? Maybe wanting to be back in his own Spira took him this far. As he walked closer, I began to feel cold. Suddenly, the color started to fade, the man who'd led me to the stadium started to disappear. That was Rothel!

"Rothel!" I screamed, water swishing around me.

"Rikku! Are you okay?" Shuyin asked me, swimming to me quickly, putting his hands on my arms.

"I… I saw your friends!"

Shuyin's eyes went wide with worry for me. I'm so sorry! "Rikku! What happened? Maybe we should go back up. Maybe your tank ran out."

"No, that's not it. It happened when I touched that handprint."

"That handprint? I was just about to say that you touched Kirin's print. Alright, I want to get to the bottom of this so tell me what you saw."

So I told him about the machina city, the stadium that looked like Home, and about seeing his friends. To be honest, it was fun to see his friends and to be in a huge machina city. Now that I think back, it couldn't be Zanarkand, but wherever it was, it was so wonderful.

"Wait, you saw Drea and Lefan?" He asked, "Did you see Haru? Were Drea and Lefan wearing red?"

"No, everybody was wearing yellow. I don't know if I saw Haru or not. I never got a chance to look at all of them carefully enough for those feelings to tell me who else I was looking at."

"It's alright. I know when in my past you saw. It should've been my first guess, seeing how we're here. You went back to that game I was talking about. It was Kion's second season with us and Haru wasn't even around then, that traitor… Anyway, that was the night we placed our handprints into the concrete." He explained to me.

That when I realized something. The stadium was where the sphere was! "Shuyin, I know where the sphere is. Do you think you can still find that stadium?"

He nodded easily, pointing to his left. We left immediately, the tanks down to twenty-five percent capacity. We were running out of time, but if my… let's call it a "dream" was right, we already found it. It took about five minutes, but we were there. Now, all I had to do was remember where I went with Rothel. I guided Shuyin through a few halls, kinda losing my way, but eventually our combined teamwork got the job done.

"So, you saw it here?" Shuyin asked, beginning to look around.

"Yup, it should be somewhere over here." I told him, following him to the inner wall of the lounge that he said it used to be.

We searched for a while, but the deeper we got, the dimmer it got and soon, we were more interested in looking for the way back out than finding the sphere.

"Rikku, you should head on up. Your tank's not gonna last much longer." Shuyin told me, swimming close so he wouldn't lose track of me.

"Same for you. Your tank'll run out soon, also!"

"Yea, but I'm used to it. I can stay down here for another ten minutes after the tanks run out if I have to." He replied. It was true. Once those tanks ran out, I would probably need to surface, especially since we were down so low. But, for Shuyin, he could stay down a pretty long time on his lungs alone.

I nodded to him and started to leave when a dark shadowy thing passed by in front, just past the entrance to this area of the stadium's interior. Right after the shadowy thing passed, the whole place started to shake and fall apart.

"Rikku! Get out of here now!" Shuyin screamed, knocking away a bit of rubble before it could hit me.

I tried to make it out, but the entrance was the first to get covered in broken pillars. The thing that passed by was probably a fiend out looking for a meal. It saw me and tried to come in, but it was too big. So instead, it just slammed into this old place and made it start collapsing.

"I'll call for help!" I told him, getting to a safe distance from where the rubble was falling.

Shuyin nodded and attacked any bits that were coming for me while I activated my communicator. "Yunie? Paine?"

Paine was the one to answer, "Rikku? Is everything alright?"

"No! Everything's just disasterrific!" I screamed, the signal blurring a little from the rumbling all around.

"Rikku? What's wrong?" It was Yunie this time.

"Come quick, Yunie! The column snapped! Shuyin and I are trapped down here!" I told my cousin.

Shuyin, suddenly, tackled me away, my hand losing its grip on the communicator. A huge chunk of the roof collapsed where I was just standing and crushed the communicator.

"Rikku? Are you okay?" He asked, starting to check for bruises.

"No, I'm just fine, thanks to you." I told him.

"I should've seen it earlier. One more second and you'd be where that communicator is. Collapsing stadium… It's bringing back some hot flashes I really don't want right now."

"Don't worry. Yunie and Paine are coming…" Oh no! My tank's empty!

"Maybe we don't need them. All you need to do is get one of your dresspheres out." Shuyin suggested. Unfortunately, my breath was starting to run out so changing a dressphere wouldn't help us too much.

Shuyin understood and his eyes went wide. "Rikku! Give me your Garment Grid! I have to get you out of here!"

My breath ran out and I started choking, but with my last effort, I tried to point to the side-pouch that I kept my Garment Grid in. It did the trick and Shuyin frantically looked for the plate of dresspheres. After he found it, we both realized he didn't know which one was which.

"Hold on, Rikku. I'll just try them." He said, pushing one of the random spheres.

A white light appeared like it always did when we changed dresspheres. Shuyin's body was covered in streams of white and gasped since it was his first time. Then, the light turned violet and black and I knew which sphere he pressed. Lucky for me, the first one he tried was the Black Mage sphere. As he finished transforming, his outfit was very dark. It was made-up of black pants, a grey shirt with glowing shapes on them, and topped off with a pitch-black trench coat.

"Rikku, just hand in there! I'll have you out in no time!" Shuyin reassured, but I could feel my mind slipping.

He cast an Ultima on the roof and swam us both out, but my eyes weren't working for me anymore. Everything turned black and I…

**Author's Notes:** I do plan to continue whether or not I get reviews, but I would still appreciate a response. C'mon guys. :(


	11. Plot Unraveled, Enemy Revealed

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Notes: **Well, tomorrow's my Finals. OO I think I'm ready for them. Anyway, let's see if the guys are ready for this one. Mwee hee.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 10: Plot Unraveled, Enemy Revealed**

Shuyin

"Rikku!" I screamed, my eyes wide with fear.

She was down there too long… I didn't get her up in time. I couldn't feel her breath and her pulse was fading fast. Yuna and Paine hadn't surfaced yet, but I did manage to contact them with my communicator shortly after I got Rikku back to the banks of the Moonflow. Quickly, I bent over her and parted her lips. Hopefully, I still knew how to resuscitate people. It had been a while, after all… Well, I figured having a near stranger press his lips on yours was still better than drowning. I began to push small breaths of air into her, following with those ten reps of chest presses. The first set didn't work. All I managed to do was take in a gulp of water when her body jerked once. I gave her some more air and was about to go for more presses, but to my luck, Rikku regained consciousness, choking the remaining water out of her lungs. Without wasting a second, I pushed her upright and patted her back gently… She was alright… She was… alright…

"Rikku… Are you okay?" I asked with a heavy sigh, extremely overjoyed that she was alive.

She coughed a little more, but managed to say, "I'm fine… Thanks to you. I owe you my life, Shuyin."

"Don't even mention it. I'm just glad you're alright." I replied, sighing again as I realized how close I was to reliving the past.

Kirin had been killed by a collapsing blitzball stadium. Chunks of debris had slammed into her defenseless and delicate body. Bevelle had stolen her from me and my heart died with her… But now, now it was Rikku. With their similarities, I feared that I pushed my heart's salvation on her. Would I have been able to go through another death like Kirin's? What if I had lost Rikku today? No, I couldn't ever let that happen to her. I'd never be able to forgive myself for letting that part of history repeat itself.

"SHUYIN!" Yuna shouted, running towards us from the distance.

"What have you done to her!" Paine added, arming herself with her sword as she reached us.

"No… you guys don't understand…" Rikku tried to say to them.

"It's alright. I'd probably make the same accusations." I told the fragile girl, adding, "Rikku said she saw something, probably a fiend. It hit the blitz stadium and the columns started to collapse. Sorry for worrying you two. Right now, I'm just glad I got her out and managed to save her. I haven't been very good at that in the past."

"Shuyin, you saved her?" Yuna asked, her tone almost sounding like her was surprised at my actions.

"Of course, I saved her! And I didn't even do a good job of that, either. She ran out of air down there. I should've gotten her out sooner, but I didn't think up a solution… Actually, Rikku pretty much saved herself. She gave me her Garment Grid. I used Black Mage to get out of there. When I got to the shore, she wasn't breathing. I kept her down too long. I'm really sorry, but I managed to resuscitate her, thankfully. I just…"

"It's okay… Thank you, Shuyin." Yuna softly stated, wrapping her arms around me into a hug before doing the same to Rikku.

"Well then, since Rikku's fine now…" Paine began, holding her sword at guard, "Why don't you give her back her Garment Grid and deactivate that dressphere you're using."

I sighed, but nevertheless, I knew I had to put up with it. "Fine, Paine. It wasn't like I wanted her grid. Unfortunately, I don't know how to deactivate this thing and pressing the same sphere again doesn't seem to do the trick."

Narrowing her eyes at me, she put away her weapon and deactivated the Black Mage abilities surging through my body, returning Rikku's Garment Grid to her. I do have to admit, when I first used it, a part of me didn't want the feeling to end. I could still remember how it started…

Rikku signaled for me to take whatever was in her pouch. I figured it had to be that dressphere thing that they'd used in their battles while I was monitoring them. With the grid, that small tablet, in my hands, I wasn't all impressed. However, when I hit that dressphere, my entire core altered, the swordsman in me fading against the brilliant blue light as violet and black shades shrouded it and replaced it, consuming my body amongst the shadows. When I felt the world reappear, I wasn't the same man. I had magic coursing through my veins. The world began to feel like an endless sea of elements and I had become their master. It was such an incredible feeling and one I had wondered about for some time. Today was my first time living the life of a spellcaster, same as that of Jurama, Larea, and Lenne. So this was the feeling you got each time you performed your magic, my love? When I felt that Ultima spell flow from my heart through my hand and burst into life, it was just as amazing as when I first learned my Force Rain overdrive. Although, I do have to admit, this time around, I could sense them, all the spells of the Black Mage, waiting within me, just biding their time until I would call them forth.

Yuna had gotten Rikku back to her feet and the three of them were ready to leave for the Celsius. With one last glance, holding up the arm I'd used to cast Ultima with, I turned to my friends and followed suit. The majesty of the mystics… in the palm of my hand…

"You know, there's only one thing that makes this day and this mission worse than it already is." Rikku pouted when we got her back to the cabin.

"What's that?" Both Yuna and I asked.

"We didn't nab that sphere! I was sure it was down there, but that meanie fiend had to make the stadium fall."

"It's alright, Rikku. The important thing is that you're safe and sound." Yuna comforted, rubbing her cousin's back gently.

That's when I recalled the events leading to bringing Rikku back to the surface. While I was pulling her along, shooting Ultimas at all the falling rubble, a sphere descended from a large pillar. I managed to grab it with my casting hand just before I required its powers again.

"Actually, that is the important thing, but nothing beats out an all out victory." I exclaimed, retrieving the captured sphere from my pocket.

"Shuyin! You found it!" Rikku gasped.

"Yea, it was actually a stroke of luck. After you had me go into Black Mage, one of the main pillars collapsed. On top of it was this sphere. I guess your dream was right. Anyway, I managed to take it while I was getting you out. Actually, the new skylight I gave the stadium let me get a better view of the area. Otherwise, had the stadium not been destroyed, we would still be looking for it down there." I explained, noting how that fiend she saw may have helped us, in addition to, nearly giving us both a watery grave.

Paine rudely snatched the sphere from my hands, but I didn't even care at that point. I wanted to see that familiar smile on Rikku's face, the one that I used to depend on from Kirin. As if knowing my desire, she graced me with that innocent expression, my heart melting to the warmth of her soul.

"I'm going to get this up to the deck to have it stored. Yuna, Rikku, we can watch it later on whenever you two are ready." Paine stated monotonously, steadily treading off with the prize of our mission.

"So… Shuyin… You used the dresspheres… Uh…" Yuna hesitantly began.

"Don't worry. I'm not gonna grow attached and spring a coup on you in the middle of the night." I told her in reassurance.

"No… I didn't mean for it to sound like that… I…"

"Dresspheres might be a fun experience for you guys, but I think I'd rather stick to the…"

"Shuyin! You don't have to back down like that! C'mon, we both know you enjoyed it." Rikku chimed in, grabbing one of my hands in both of hers.

My mouth gaped somewhat at her statement and I knew she was right. I knew I wasn't planning on running off with their weapons. Why did I have to throw myself into the executioner's block every time? "Well, I do have to admit, using black magic for once was quite the experience. I wouldn't mind using dresspheres again, but I really don't think Yuna would…"

"No… I… I trust you, Shuyin… I guess I probably should've known that sooner, but I doubted myself." Yuna inserted, cutting me off.

At last… It seemed I really would be getting a second chance, not only continuing on with my life, but renewing it with brand new faces and brand new memories. A new chapter, no… A new story had begun and this time, it'll unfold the right way…

A week later, I was back in the Luca SphereDome. Following my pledge to make my new life progress properly, I reinstated myself into the ranks of the blitzers. My time as a free agent was amazingly short-lived as teams flocked to sign me. Of course, as I was indebted to Rikku and Yuna for their gifts, I let them decide which team I would join. At first, Rikku told me to do what I saw fit, but the air she carried with her words were enough to tell me that her true intentions were for me to come back to the Gullwings. Yuna had wanted to stop the blitzball playing seeing as how her boyfriend was leading the Aurochs. Originally, they'd only entered into blitzball as a favor to Wakka. The Aurochs were needed to help their former captain learn how to fend for the baby, Vidina. Yuna was thrilled to take on blitz before, but after playing a few league games, she decided she'd leave the sport to professionals. The Gullwings team hadn't fared too successfully. Eventually, Rikku let up and allowed Yuna to dissolve their blitzball team. Therefore, without further debate, I joined the Besaid Aurochs, much to the horror of every other team on Spira.

"Shuyin, our game's in ten. Have fun, okay?" Letty informed me, patting me on the back as he headed for the showers.

"Will do." I returned, waving him off and going to my locker.

It had been a good season… oh, I mean a good tournament for the Aurochs. Seasons were a thing of the past. In the current day and age, blitzball went by tournaments that take place about once a month. Each tournament goes by a tier system. In the luck of the draw, two teams face-off while the third in each branch waits for the victor. We were lucky in this tournament and the Psyches went up against the Goers and lost. All we had to do to get into the finals was to defeat the Goers and wait for the winner of the other branch. That winner was the Ronso Fangs, in a huge upset against the Glories. In their earlier game, the Glories were weakened severely by the Beasts. Their two top players were taken down during the match and so the Fangs won a game versus a highly damaged blitz team.

In any case, the other me was the forerunner of the Aurochs' success. In the earlier tournaments, he'd been using Jecht Shots and their better incarnations almost every game. The other teams usually never stood a chance against them, though some had started to copy the original Jecht Shot from him. Fortunately, as with all challengers past and present, none could match our speed in the maneuver. This latest game with the Goers, he'd managed to pull off my tactic to block the Jecht Shot from one of his opponents and use a Jecht Shot Mark III to pin the victory. That's why so many people came to sign me. After seeing my tremendous win over the Aurochs with the Gullwings, all rivaling blitz teams wanted a weapon like myself to pit against him. So, when I joined up with the Aurochs also, it was the death knell for everyone. It had been difficult enough to survive with just one of me around, now they had to deal with the me that beat the other me.

"So, I heard about that mission you guys had. Yuna told me that night." My twin said, taking his seat next to mine.

"Yea, it was terrible. I was so afraid I wouldn't get Rikku out of there alive." I replied, recalling the fear that remained deep in my heart.

"At least you did so everything's fine. Anyway, Yuna told me you also found the sphere. I haven't had a chance to go to the Celsius to take a look, but since we've still got about five minutes left, maybe you could tell me."

So I recounted the events after we had all rested and recuperated from the mission:

_"What do you suppose is on this thing?" I had asked._

_"Since we're all here, we should go ahead and take a peek. After that mission, I think we deserve some entertainment." Yuna offered._

_"Yea, I wanna see what's on it!" Rikku added, hopping to show her enthusiasm._

_Paine began pressing a few buttons on a panel while the treasure lay on some kind of stand. Suddenly, the bottom of the stand thing lit up and a bunch of strange glyphs appeared around it. The sphere played soon after, but all the while, I was wondering why there was such an archaic player on Akoji's airship. Either the original player had been too damaged to salvage or Akoji was into the ancient methods for playing back a sphere, but in any case, there was a far better way to get the object to display its contents. I strained to make out the picture as it was horribly warped by the player adding to the poor quality of the sphere itself born from years of decay._

_Slowly, I began to make out a location, then a few faces, though most of the ones closer towards the back were hopelessly clouded over. The sphere was a recording in that same blitz stadium and out of all the faces I could make out, I only cared for two: Yu Yevon… and my love, Lenne._

_"… here to… blitzball…" Was all I could really make out for Lenne's opening statement._

_"Well… exciti… You… yourself now. Lenne, is it?" Yu Yevon said to her._

_Was this during the first season of blitz Lenne was around for? If so, it meant that our leader had been scouting my love for quite some time. Did he have his plan in mind to start with? He couldn't have known how strong Lenne would've turned out all the way back then, right? Although, he did freak out when I wouldn't approve of his outrageous method to stopping Bevelle. Maybe the entire war was nothing more than a tactical strategy to make Yu Yevon the undisputed god on Spira, Bevelle's own leaders nothing more than his willing servants so as to become masters of the land. If this was the case, that horrendous machina war was fought in total vain, every death spawned only losses, never a worthy sacrifice, not even my own. Then, it would also have had nothing to do with Areth's ambitions, though his own plans fell right in sync with Mikala and Yu Yevon's._

_It may have been over one thousand years in Spira's history, but if there was more evidence, I could condemn the "holy" name of Yevon for all eternity. How's that for vengeance?_

"So, what's your take on it? I personally don't know anything about your Lenne or this Yu Yevon. Actually, the only thing I really knew about the guy was that he was the head-hancho for that Yevon junk." The other me stated, my mind returning to the present.

"Well, I think I may have my revenge on Yu Yevon yet." I told him, smirking to myself at the sheer thought of wrecking every last bit of work the man had done to immortalize his name.

It was an adventure and mission to accomplish for the future as I now had one. For the moment, it was time to blitz. The Fangs assembled their formidable forces on the inner rim of the Dome's floor, waiting patiently as the Sphere Pool filled to capacity. On our side, most of the guys were highly anxious, this being the fifth tournament they might win. Their first victory over two years ago ended the Aurochs' ten year losing streak. After that, there were some rough goings, but the dream version of me had helped for as long as he remained on Spira. The two years in between, the Aurochs began to suffer, their star player having dissolved into a collection of pyreflies and all. Their morale was weakening and so, when baby Vidina was born, they more than happily traded one tournament for babysitting. Once my twin returned following my destruction, they won their third and fourth tournaments straight. This, of course, was interrupted by my triumph over them a few weeks ago, which led to the signing frenzy.

I could already tell what the Fangs' strategy would be: All out assault on the two of us to obliterate the rest of the team morale and utterly crush us with their power. It was an obvious tactic, but being the ronso they were, strategy to them was mostly about giving the heaviest beat-down to the opposing team. Hey, an incapacitated team wouldn't defeat you, right? For their strength and endurance, this was a very useful and logical method.

The game itself was far from entertaining, though. See, as both me and my other had already scouted their strategy, all we needed was to know what to do to ruin it. With our combined skills, that was nothing short of easy. The entire game, both of us would joke around, passing the ball back and forth until every Fang was intent on knocking us out, then we'd pass it to Letty or Beclem for an easy goal on account of a distracted goalie. Ronso weren't too graceful in the water. The goalie had no shot at blocking any of our forwards' shots. By the second half, the fans had gotten bored of watching the shutout. Finally, we just decided to put the lot of them out of their misery and so, I began a Jecht Shot v2.

First, I socked the ball with a kick and took out the grunt that was following me. When it bounced back, it had deflected to him and he made the same kick, taking out another guy as it bounced back to me. With a back-flip, I made a Jecht Shot and hit the ball as I came full around with the flip, the ball knocking out one more ronso and going back to him. Likewise, he made his second shot and it came back to me for a second time and I punched it into yet another player for a total of five. It went back to him and he punched it into a sixth, the ball returning to me once more for my final strike. I spun in the water, biding my energy as the blitz ball steadily approached. Once it came close enough, I hung out my left leg and knocked it straight into the goalie, taking him out of the game, as well. Likewise, after the ball bounced to him, the other me spun and smacked the ball into one more player, taking down the final player of the Fangs.

Suddenly, the Sphere Pool began to rumble, the water containment field beginning to destabilize and morph as the tremors grew more intense. A giant crater opened up underneath us, spewing dozens of fiends, some breaching the pool and coming for the two of us.

"Everybody out of the pool!" I screamed to the rest of the Aurochs, motioning for them to help the unconscious ronso.

"Hey, Shuyin! Wanna try that move again?" My twin asked me.

"Let's show these wimps who they're messing with!" I replied, clenching a fist and giving him a nod to start off.

With the fiends being far less brawny when compared to the massive ronso we used the tactic on just before, it was a sure bet that they went down by the threes or fours instead of merely one at a time. The final kicks we each performed were strong enough to waste a good couple dozen in their own right.

After we dispatched the fiends in the pool, our attention was redirected outside where YRP and any fighter in the stands were fending off the rest of the beasts. Once we were out of the pool, the task being just a bit more difficult than usual as a result of the field disruption. We had to time our jumps right when the field stretched in our favor or else a retraction would drop us down into the hole. Anyway, both of us equipped our swords and got right into the mix. As the blitz game had been pretty uneventful, we each had the stamina to call forth our own versions of energy surges.

"Force Rain!" I shouted, focusing all scattered bits of energy around me into my sword.

With a stab, I unleashed the beam into the air, disintegrating a large chunk of aerial fiends.

"Energy Rain!" I heard my twin scream after, running to an enemy to use it as a step to get airborne.

He floated in the sky for a little while, a spark of power igniting in his Brotherhood as he brought it back. With a wave, he released several bolts of fushia-colored light into the pit, the concrete exploding soon after, taking out all nearby fiends.

Moments later, a terrible groan sounded from the depths. An anchor plummeted from the sky straight through the Sphere Pool's field conductor, shattering the pool, the waters crashing into the SphereDome roughly. The anchor began to retract and a creature I thought I'd never see again rose from the depths. The chained and bound beast, a heart filled with only darkness, returned to Spira once more. The return of the Dark Aeon: Anima…

With a sorrowful wail, the summoned beast used its special ability, targeting all the remaining fiends on Luca with Pain. Pyreflies lighted the sky, the enormous amount whisking past all of us and gathering behind the Aeon.

"And from the tempest fury, a spark ignites… to sigh a new life, the rebirth of Spira's final Maester…" A suave voice echoed from within the collection of pyreflies.

"Seymour!" Both I and the other me exclaimed, readying ourselves for the evil Maester's attack.

"Ah, yes, my reputation precedes me." He smoothly called back, still cocooned by the life-creating creatures.

"I don't know how you came back, but you're going to the Farplane right now!" My other said, dashing at the Aeon recklessly, growling all the way.

"Foolish copy. Anima, deal with this pest." The Maester commanded.

My eyes went wide. If he was ill-equipped, there would be no way he could survive Pain. I had learned all its powers when I possessed the fayth that bore the creature. Pain's special and unique strength was that it could instantly induce death in whatever it targeted. I chased after the "copy" and tackled him away before Anima's ability hit its mark.

"My Ribbon! I didn't have it on me!" He gasped after Anima took out the ground beneath him.

"Lucky for you then. Get out of here. I'll handle Anima." I told him, waving for him to leave my side.

"But you can't handle that thing on your own!" He stated.

"Things worked differently back then. Pain's effect doesn't work on me as long as I have my sword." I explained.

"How's that…" He began, but Anima tried to hit us with Pain again.

Holding up my blade, I absorbed the assault into it, my weapon's composition fizzling for an instant as a few blue pyreflies swirled around it, knocked out of their proper place.

"How did your sword do that?" He asked, astounded by the show as expected.

"My saber is a gift from an unsent, my teacher. It keeps me immune to certain attacks as it acts like a barrier of death that can take no damage." I explained.

"You mean your sword's a zombie?"

"…" Did they really think I was that dense in Zanarkand? "No, it's unsent. Think of it like a pile of pyreflies that look like a sword and can cut things like it was a sword. I'll explain later. Just get everybody out of here."

With that said, I charged at Anima, deflecting shots of Pain every now and then. Soon, I drew near enough to actually climb onto the immense demon.

"Impressive, phantom swordsman. Your skills are truly marvelous, as I was told it would be. However, it won't save you nor anyone else from my wrath." Seymour assured.

"I won't fail again." I muttered under my breath, stabbing Anima in the neck once I climbed atop it.

The Aeon faltered and dissipated, the two of us landing neatly on the ground and immediately staring holes into one another. He raised his hands, readying his spells to counter my blade that I already had at my side, awaiting his attack. Instead, he grinned and stood straight, starting to back away.

"We will have yet to duel again, blitzer. When next we meet, you will return to the ash from whence you came back into being. That is a promise. Farewell." He stated smoothly, quickly casting a Fire spell at the ground and vanishing after the smoke cleared.

"Yes, we will…"

For the rest of the day, we discussed what to do about the resurrected Maester. Most signs pointed to having a connection to me. As much as I disliked the thought of our revival being two intertwined events, I knew it was the only logical conclusion. Two dead people don't return to the realm of the living at random, after all. Although, for him, it seemed he knew exactly how he was returned to Spira. I, on the other hand, merely opened my eyes to the warm waters of Besaid after closing them to the fading form of my love, the brilliant light shining upon us both. At last, we came to a means through which we could end Seymour's life once more.

"We have to go to the Farplane and seek out the fayth." Yuna stated forcefully.

"I agree. They must know something we don't and they still owe you for the two times you saved this world." I responded.

"Do we really need to? This episode seems to have a certain someone written all over it." Paine interjected, giving me a sideways glance.

"If you're insinuating that I'd have any remote desire to return Maester Seymour to Spira, you've got another thing coming."

Paine merely huffed at my words, saying in return, "But the two of you have so much in common. You both want to take down Spira and you both need to have your heads checked, after all."

"You seem to be mistaking me for that 'shadow' the fayth told you about." I replied, knowing that, though a part of her believed I was still up to no good, there was also another part of her that knew the me that ruined her life and wanted to end life on Spira was another person all together.

Sooner or later, she gave up that ploy of pegging me as the scapegoat for Seymour's rebirth and the lot of us headed straight for the Farplane Glen. Fayth would have answers. They had to have them. We had no other sources to turn to.

When we arrived, the guado greeted us somewhat distantly. With their dethroned leader returned to them, those who still felt loyalty for the man were given a difficult choice: Resume servitude under their lord or reconsider their options and start anew. In any case, both my twin and I positioned our scabbards at a ready position. If any of those sly and crafty people wanted to try something, I'd make sure they were rewarded with a weight lifted off their shoulders. I was sure my other would do no different. With all the trouble I remembered seeing that Maester cause them, he held a pretty good grudge on those people. It was a safe bet that the Gullwings made it to the Farplane gate with ease.

"Fayth? I must speak with you!" Yuna called out as we all began exploring the home of the dead.

While she went to ask the Bahamut fayth what was going on, I wandered off on my own, losing track of everyone else. I had to get the nagging feeling off my chest: What if my return to Spira, my new lease on life, what if all of it was intertwined with Seymour? Wouldn't that mean that taking him out would also require my death? I couldn't allow myself to die again without finding Lenne. We faded together again, but once more, I awoke in this world alone. I swore to myself I would never allow failure this time. I wanted to make this opportunity count. If my resurrection was nothing more than a freak accident, a malfunction of the Farplane, once it was resolved and Seymour was brought back into the darkness, everything had to be set right. That meant I would have to return to the abyss, as well. I mean, I was fine with it if I had to put things right. I guess, well a part of me relished in the thought of having a brand new chance to live out my days. I… well, I…

_Nobody knows who I really am_

_I never felt this empty before_

_And if I ever need someone to come along_

_Who's gonna comfort me and keep me strong?_

Who was that? That voice sounded so familiar. Normally, when song comes into play, it was undoubtedly Lenne's work. However, this time… It didn't seem right. Lenne never had a song like this. And those words weren't her style, either. They were filled with a loneliness I never felt before. Who could it have been?

"Shuyin…" A voice, a different one than that which had created the sorrowful melody.

"…Larea…" I muttered, turning around slowly, "It's you…"

"Surprised? Were you not seeking our help?" She simply stated.

"I thought the Bahamut fayth would have appeared to Yuna by now."

"No, this story needs a new protagonist."

"You can't possibly mean me. After all I've done, you would consider me a protagonist?" I slyly exclaimed, a small grin appearing on my features.

"Yes, though you inflicted insurmountable chaos to this planet, the mind controlling your actions was not your own. I have no place to judge you for the actions of a broken heart."

"I think I should feel honored, but you came here for a purpose and that was to explain how I and Seymour are back from the grave."

"Dreams are meant to be fantasy. They can manifest an infinite amount of possibilities, but regardless, all ambition must end at some point. Only the dream that can end dreams has the power. Seek out the cloud of illusion. There lies the key that will unravel the schemes of history." And with that, my friend vanished, leaving me with a highly confusing message.

"Dreams are meant to be fantasy? Well of course they are! Only the dream that can end dreams… well, that must be talking about the other me." As Rikku told me, he'd been the one to put and end to the dreaming of the fayth in the past. Wait, so we were dealing with another dream of the fayth? Seymour was a dream? Did that make me a dream? Impossible! Both of us were returned as we truly were. Dreams weren't capable of creating such accuracy. Besides, I already had a dream copy and he was not me.

_Nobody knows who I really am_

_Maybe they just don't give a damn_

_But if I ever need someone to come along_

_I know you will follow me and keep me strong_

It was that song again. I followed the voice along each syllable and it took me to a small ravine, overgrown in purple and pink flowers. Sitting amongst the flower beds was a girl with blonde hair grown down to the middle of her back. Memories of a familiar face hit me and immediately, I knew who had created the music…

"Rikku…" I whispered to the wind, continuing to gaze at her back.

Why? How long have you carried these emotions?

**Author's Notes:** So, why has Rikku taken such a melancholic song? Is Tidus the key once more? Tune in next chapter for the answers. Maybe...


	12. The Darkness Returned

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **At last, Chapter Eleven is here. With Seymour returned to the world of the living, many questions have been resurrected. For months, Shuyin's worked hard to redeem himself in the eyes of those he's hurt. Was that all a game? Is Shuyin actually in cahoots with Seymour? They both have the same goal: Destroy all of Spira. What does Tidus think about all this? And how will his thoughts effect the course of Spira's future?

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 11: The Darkness Returned**

Tidus

When Shuyin went after Anima, I thought he was done for. For the rest of us, nothing really worked against that Aeon's Pain attack. I told him that I didn't have my Ribbon on me, but even if I did, Ribbon's effect still doesn't protect against Anima. Then, his sword blocked the attack for him. It seemed like at every turn, he was ready for whatever came at him. Sure enough, I think it makes him suspicious. How could he be prepared for everything? Well, it could have something to do with being in a huge war, but then, why wouldn't I know of any of those things? If Yuna was right, I was a dream of the fayth based off of Shuyin. That meant that we should have been equal in all parts. Instead, he had a sword that was supposed to be unsent so it could handle the power of instant death. Instead, he was the one who beat me in swordplay. Instead, he was better than me in blitzball. Things didn't fit.

Now, we stood in the Farplane, a suggestion that Shuyin was glad to accept.

_"We have to go to the Farplane and seek out the fayth." Yuna had said, using more inner strength than I'd ever seen during her pilgrimage._

_"I agree. They must know something we don't and they still owe you for the two times you saved this world." He replied right after, kinda rushed if you ask me ._

I couldn't shake what Yuna told me. Well, she was already starting to trust Shuyin. Rikku was practically smitten by the guy and Paine seemed to be the only one who shared my idea, but even she started buddy buddying with Shuyin. Why was he so convincing? Then again, it really didn't take too much convincing for Yuna and her guardians, even Rikku and the Al Bhed, to believe that I was just some blitzer who came too close to Sin and lost his memory. Unfortunately, it also gave Shuyin the edge. With Seymour back, if Shuyin was in cahoots with that madman, he could sabotage any plan we might make to stop him, whatever his plans were.

It'd been ten minutes and Yuna still couldn't get the Bahamut fayth to show himself. He owed us for the favor we'd done for him and the rest of the Zanarkand fayth two years ago. From what I heard, they owed Yuna again for what she did for them when Shuyin went on his own rampage.

"Fayth! Please come forth! Seymour's a great threat. You know this! Why won't you talk to me?" Yuna pleaded.

"Yuna, it's been ten minutes already. If the fayth were going to show themselves, they had plenty of time to do so." I said to her, putting my hand on her shoulder to give her my support.

"I know, but…"

"Yuna, where's Rikku?" Paine asked, turning our attention to her.

"Rikku? Oh, I thought she was with you." Yuna said, looking around.

I started walking off into the distance. Something told me, I'd find Rikku further into the glen. While we were waiting before, I felt a strange presence. It was like an old friend, but I knew better. The presence was one of the fayth, one of the people of Zanarkand, one of Shuyin's old friends that just happened to have put a foothold into my memory. I followed my gut feeling.

"Rikku…" I heard my voice utter when I reached a purple and pink flowerbed.

Shuyin stood on a hill overlooking it, staring off into the distance. I walked up slowly, trying to make sure he didn't hear me. I wanted to make sure Rikku was safe before I let him catch me off guard.

Unfortunately, the guy was ready for that, too. "Rikku's down there. She was just singing. I… We should talk to Yuna. The fayth visited me instead."

"You? Why did the Bahamut fayth come to you?"

"No… not Bahamut… An old friend of mine." I knew it.

"Who? And what did they say?"

"Larea, the fayth who gave Yuna the power of her special Aeon, the Magus Sisters." He said lightly, his focus kinda offset to Rikku by the looks of it, "She said… 'Only the dream that can end dreams has the power.' I suppose she means you."

"Dream that can end dreams? Yea, the Bahamut fayth called me that once. It was on Mt. Gagazet when he threw me into some weird dream. That's when he asked me to end their dreaming once and for all." I explained to him.

"And then you stopped Sin at the cost of your existence…" He finished off for me, "It would appear you're being summoned again. I was told that you're the key and that we need to seek out the cloud of illusion. Know what that means?"

"Cloud of illusion?" Yea, I know what that could mean. Shuyin and Seymour's lies and deceit would fit the description.

With what Seymour tried to do over two years back, it wasn't too far from illusion. He tricked all of us into thinking he was some man of the cloth, taking over for his dead father. He never mentioned that he was the one who'd killed his father just to take his place as a Maester. Becoming Maester helped bring him more control so he could play out his plan to become Sin and take out all of Spira. What a creep. And that's where Shuyin came in. His goal was to take down Spira, also. He'd lied to Yuna, pretended to be me and lured her into his little game to get Vegnagun. He somehow controlled the fayth into attacking for him. He was a mastermind in another plan of evil. Both players are back and this seems like Yuna's pilgrimage all over again.

"You… you still don't trust me, do you? Otherwise you wouldn't have been so quiet. You know, I don't even intend for you to trust me. How could I ask anyone to? That's why I've only spoken with Rikku for these past weeks. She's the only one who came to me of her own free will, I wasn't going to turn down a friend." Shuyin started, noticing that I hadn't said anything since he asked me about the cloud of illusion.

"Yuna, she trusts you, I think." I told him to cover for me.

"Hmm, maybe, but that still doesn't mean you trust me. I can sense your caution and I don't blame you. Obviously, Yuna told you what I've done and I think Seymour's return doesn't help my case. Whatever the situation is, Seymour should be your first concern. Ask yourself this: If I really wanted to do you any harm, why didn't I just kill you after our first fight?"

"What makes you think I'm pairing you with Seymour?"

"Because I would…" He answered quickly, "I know what I've done and I know that if I were any of you, I'd have suspicions and doubts about my allegiance. Maybe it's from the war, but my behavior doesn't warrant me too much faith."

He was right, of course. I didn't trust him and Seymour showed up at just the right time to mess everybody up. We were standing in the Farplane because of him, the scene of Shuyin's final blaze of glory. It…

"Seems a little too perfect… He comes back just as people start to believe in me again. He starts up trouble in the same place he began his show of goodwill, deceiving you all into falling into his traps. What does it all mean? Why would he want to come back? If I remember correctly, his madness started with the death of his mother."

"The what? I thought…"

"Oh! Guys! I… Um, how did I end up here?" Rikku stammered, finally noticing the two of us.

That was perfect timing also. Shuyin was just about ready to spill some information that might tip the scales either way and Rikku interrupts. Although, from what Shuyin did manage to get out, Seymour was crazy, not evil. I know Seymour better than most, Yuna probably the only person who knew better… okay maybe that's not too true, but I knew enough about the guy to know he _was_ pure evil. I mean, it takes a lot of darkness to reason out taking out a whole planet. Madness probably wouldn't do it, at least not in my opinion. You know, Yuna told me Shuyin wasn't the same person that his Lenne knew. She said he wasn't himself, that he was a shadow. I have other ideas. Wouldn't it be the best excuse to say he was crazy and now he's all reformed and kissing babies? Now, he makes the same statement about Seymour, that that lunatic was really just some poor soul who was lost. But Rikku was here. I didn't want to try anything that might get her killed.

"Rikku, I know… Don't worry, I can't really tell you I understand what was going on, but in any case, your secret's safe with me since this guy showed up after the show was over." Shuyin responded for the both of us.

"Well, that's all good, but I really don't know what happened either. I just remember coming into the Farplane and then I'm here. Maybe later you can fill me in on this secret you're keeping for me. I'm going to find Yunie."

Hmm, and now even more clues leading to Shuyin being a fraud of a reformed evil mastermind. "Yea, I think I'm going to go find Yuna, too. Whenever you're ready, Shuyin, come find us. I think you want to be alone for a little bit to think about all this."

We walked away from Shuyin as he continued to stare out into the glen, thinking about whatever but I wasn't going to take a guess. I'd always been better at solving problems as they come and, so far, that problem was Seymour. When Shuyin decided to show his true colors, I would deal with him. He caught me off guard twice so far, springing from the dead with all his sword skills intact and then revealing that new blitzball technique for the first time. I wasn't ready for those surprises, but I doubt the guy has too many more. In a fair fight, I could take him down. Now, for Rikku…

"So, what's this secret Shuyin's talking about?" I asked.

"Like I told Shuyin, I don't even know."

"You really sure…"

"Hey you two. Where have you been?" Paine interrupted.

Dammit Paine! Rikku could be in danger. Whatever this secret between the two of them, Rikku was playing right into Shuyin's hands by not telling me what it was.

"I was just over there with Shuyin when he came for us." Rikku said, pointing to me.

"Well, we're going. Yuna spoke with the Bahamut fayth." Paine informed us.

"What did he say?" We both asked, Rikku more surprise, me more worried curiosity.

"He said that Shuyin would know." Yuna answered for Paine, coming towards us.

Rikku suddenly jumped and looked at me, "Shuyin? Well, I didn't get a chance to ask him, but…"

I guess that was my cue, though I really didn't want to tell more people something that could've been a lie to screw us up further, "Uh, he said it had to do with me and finding the 'cloud of illusions' or something like that."

"Actually, there was more to it, but I just wanted to ask if you could make sense out of it." There he came, Seymour's new partner in crime.

"Oh? Can you remember what else the fayth told you?" Yuna asked our soon to be nemesis.

"Yea, and please, do tell the truth." Paine added, putting a figurative step onto my side.

Shuyin went quiet for a little bit, no doubt figuring out what else to lie to Yuna about, "Uh, well, if I remember this word for word: Dreams are meant to be fantasy. They turn into a lot of… possibilities, but um… something else. Only the dream that can end dreams has the power. Seek out the cloud of illusion. There lies the key that… uh, does something. I'm sorry, I didn't really understand that, but those were the key points, I'm sure of it." Or so he says. Well, then again, this whole talk to the fayth thing was probably different, too. I mean, he was probably just making all this up. He does a very good job, what with remembering to keep in the part about the cloud and me.

"Dreams are meant to be fantasy?" All three of YRP asked in sync.

"Yea, I didn't really get that part either, but I'm sure it's important."

"Hmm, well it's an obvious sentence, but I don't know, maybe there's something more to it?" Paine suggested, making sure to stress the parts where she was being sarcastic.

"Okay then, Dr. Paine. Why don't you figure it out then and give your cynical therapy a rest?" Shuyin retorted.

"… Um, Shuyin? It's Dr. P, not Dr. Paine." Rikku corrected in her usual carefree way.

"Uh, I knew that! I… Okay, you know what, forget it!" Shuyin grunted with a fake pout to fake being a good guy.

Of course, Rikku and Yuna both started laughing and falling further into Shuyin's grasp. Paine and I, on the other hand, stayed quiet. I hope she wasn't just keeping up her stoic attitude.

"So, Paine, got any ideas?" Shuyin continued once the laughter calmed down.

"Huh, what?" She replied, letting me know that she was caught under the snake's sly spell.

"You know, the thing we've been working on? Dreams and all that." Shuyin reminded, embarrassing the warrior.

"Oh! Well, we'll just have to think further into it." And with that, she turned her back.

"I think Dr. P's blushing." Rikku mused, hopping over to her and trying to get a peek of her face while she dodged Rikku's eyes.

I decided to put an end to the love fest, "Hey, Shuyin's got us our first clue and all you guys can think of to do is joke around?"

"Hmm, you're a little serious, aren't you?" Shuyin returned.

"Yea, is everything okay? You're acting a little strange." Yuna added, throwing more against my position.

I had to come up with something fast, "Well, I'm the key to this whole mess again, right? So we shouldn't be laughing it up. We should be finding Seymour so I can gut him."

"Amateur… Kid, don't be so hasty. If I know you, you think he's up to his old tricks. Well, if that's the case, why go head in and get caught in his trap? We should figure all this fayth stuff out first and then find him when we're all ready." Shuyin…

"Yea, I think he's right. Let's get out of here. We'll get some rest and think over it. If Seymour comes back, we'll handle him, but we shouldn't go out looking for him because that's probably what he wants." Yuna suggested.

Without another word, we all left the Farplane and went back to Besaid on the Celsius. In the Celsius, I decided to do a little investigating on my other half. They were chatting it up a while after we boarded, but eventually, Yuna and Rikku wanted to have some girl time so they along with Paine went to the cabin. Shuyin and I didn't have actual rooms on the airship, seeing how we both weren't really Gullwings or anything. So, for rooms, we picked any open area of the ship. I stuck by the bridge just to be simple, but Shuyin called the deck of all places. But, anyway, he was up there so that's where I was headed. I couldn't take the elevator up there, of course. That'd alert Shuyin far too easily. That's why I came up with a slick plan. Instead of using the elevator, I'd send the elevator down to the engine room and pry open the doors. Then, I'd just climb up to the deck as quiet as I can.

"You know, sending the elevator away so you can loudly force open two sets of automatic metal doors doesn't make you any less obvious." Shuyin muttered in boredom when I put my plan into action. Why is he so damn aware?

"Yea, well you're the key player in this game, aren't you? It doesn't take a genius to see how much you could make out in all this."

"If you mean finding Vegnagun and blowing up Spira while you guys are too busy with Seymour, you're sadly mistaken. Even if I was in cahoots with him, he'd want to be the one to destroy Spira."

"Oh, so you _are_ on the same team!" I spurted out, just a bit too quickly for my head to realize how stupid that was.

"You did hear the part where I said even, right?" Of course, he had to say that, "I expected something like this from Paine. You never even saw how I was. Is this really about whether or not you trust me or is it a way to put the blame on someone for Seymour's return? I know how horrible he was in life. I felt it in the Den of Woe."

"I'm not trying to blame anybody for Seymour coming back! I'm just…" I tried to defend.

Suddenly the speaker on the deck came on and Yuna's voice shouted out for us to come to the bridge. I wasn't trying to blame Shuyin because Seymour came back. I wasn't… was I? No, it was because all these signs made it very clear that Shuyin would win out from this situation. He was just trying to confuse me!

"We've got a message from Besaid." Buddy announced when Shuyin and I reached the bridge.

"It's from Letty." Rikku clarified, "Here, I'll put up the volume."

"What is the problem, Letty?" Yuna asked him.

"You guys have to come quick. This weird looking creature showed up from the temple, ya? I think Wakka called it Anima. It… something took them! Lulu and Wakka are gone!"

"Seymour! He's kidnapped them!" Yuna gasped.

I growled and turned to my other half. Who was it that wanted to go to the Farplane again? "Shuyin, you wanted us to go to the Farplane, didn't you? Otherwise, we'd have been back here from Luca and Wakka and Lulu would still be here!"

"No, it's not Shuyin's fault. I was the one who wanted to speak with the fayth, remember?" Yuna defended for the bastard.

"That's what you think, Yuna. This guy tricked us all. Now, Wakka and Lulu are in trouble when we could've been there to help!" I screamed, pressing Shuyin against a wall with my forearm, "Tell us where Seymour's taken them!"

He tried to look away, still pretending, "I don't even know what he could do with them. I thought he was after me. That's what he said during our fight. If anyone else, I thought he'd want to go after you and Yuna, but why Wakka and Lulu?"

"He wants his revenge on all of us. He knows he can't get to the three of us who were in that pilgrimage. Plus, he'd want to save me for last if I know his twisted ways right. He's going after the rest of my guardians. If he's got Wakka and Lulu already, Auron's lost to him in the Farplane, the only person he still has to capture is Kimahri!" Yuna suggested, "We've got to get to Mt. Gagazet!"

"Oh wait!" Rikku stammered suddenly, "What about baby Vidina!"

"Oh, don't worry Rikku. Us Aurochs were taking care of Vidina when it happened, ya? Wakka and Lulu went to the temple to fix that hole in the chamber of fayth. When the temple exploded, we came running and saw something take them while they were running out." Letty clarified.

"Alrighty then. Next stop: Mt. Gagazet!" Brother shouted, turning the airship around.

This mess with Shuyin would have to wait. First, our old ronso friend needed us. Alone, Kimahri wouldn't be able to stand up to Seymour, just like Wakka and Lulu couldn't. Seymour knew that, with the pilgrimage over, they all separated to live out their destinies. Because of that, they were vulnerable. Yuna found safety with Rikku and added Paine to the mix. With me back, Seymour knew that it would be tough to get to us.

"Let's go get Kimahri!" I exclaimed, holding out a fist to motivate the gang.

**Author's Note: **So Seymour's after the old gang from Final Fantasy X. What does he plan to do if he managed to obtain all of them? Is Shuyin plotting something behind their backs to help Seymour accomplish his goal? Find out in the next chapter!


	13. Through the Looking Glass

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note: **Firstly, I'm terribly sorry about how long it's been since my last update. From my user page, I did notice some avid fans are still checking the stories so I'm very grateful to you all. When we last left off, Seymour returned to Spira and incited the suspicion of one star blitzer. The gang visited the Farplane to see what was going on with all this only to get a strange message. The only clear message was that the "one who can end dreams" would be involved so we're looking at another adventure for him, but with new friends and new abilities. Now, all that needs to be done is to figure out what else is in store.

So without further delay, here is the next chapter in Spira: The Eternal Discord. Enjoy!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 12: Through the Looking Glass**

Lulu

A lot had changed for everyone. Yuna's champion returned to her just like Rikku had predicted on that day. "We'll see you again," she said. However, I doubt anybody would have guessed there'd be another adventure in store for him. Suddenly, Spira's gotten interesting again. I just hope it doesn't become as interesting as it did before. As a former guardian, I wish to support my summoner in this, her next journey. As a mother, though, I can't stop the concern in my heart over all that's been happening. I didn't have the freedoms to gallivant about Spira seeking to change things. I had other responsibilities first.

Vidina was with his father along the beach. His father figured to get an early start at training the next World Champion, even if the star pupil wasn't old enough to walk. Currently, "coach" was in the water debating with Letty, one of out make-shift babysitters, about what to teach Vidina next.

"Whaddya mean just kick it? I'm tryin' to make my son a champ here, ya?" Wakka complained.

"Yea, but the good stuff might scare our little brudda." Letty noted.

Wakka only scoffed at that, of course. "He's gonna be the greatest, ya? Well, the greatest need some great moves to keep the team on their toes, ya?"

"If you say so."

With that in mind, my brilliant husband proceeded to demonstrate one of his best maneuvers, what he called the "Auroch's Spirit". It was a fairly impressive move, yes, but I think Vidina was more interested in playing with Letty's suspenders. Still, that wouldn't have stopped the performance. It seemed he was picking up where he left off with you. You know, Wakka was born to be a father even if it gets on people's nerves. I know you just wanted a brother out of him, but even the Aurochs knew and eventually we all did, there was just that quality about him. Of course, he would say it was doing what he should, but he looked out for those around him, fitting himself into the proper roles to protect us.

You knew that best of all, didn't you? It was hard on both of you when your parents were taken, but mostly it was on Wakka, wasn't it? He suddenly thought he had to be big brother and mother and father to you. It was difficult for him to adjust to what he believed he had to do. In hindsight, perhaps he came on too strongly when he was trying to parent you, especially the humorous lectures he gave you when we started dating.

You and I… I wasn't lying when I told you those were the happiest days of my life. It was simpler then when we weren't focused on changing the world. Thinking about that only brought trouble, horrible trouble like Lady Ginnem or the Crusaders. Before we grew up and toyed with those ideas, Spira seemed hospitable, Sin aside. I guess that's what happens when we grow up. I wonder if Vidina will have the same fate. I know Wakka wants to make amends on him for what he couldn't do for you, Chappu. He tried his best to look out for you, but you wouldn't have it. You were always your own person and that was something I respected and adored about you. That quality mirrored in Yuna's champion, too, didn't it? He didn't just share your face, did he? Wakka saw it early on and hoped to be there for him since you didn't let him, but he was wrong again. You two were too stubborn, too adamant about going your own way. You even had to abandon your Brotherhood in order to do so. It would seem that this path was laid out for both of you long ago, back when cities sparkled like stars. From the stories Yuna shared, you two shared that, too, a common legacy to stray from those you cared most about

This time Wakka won't be wrong. This time will be different. Vidina will carry with him the lives you ought to have lived if you weren't so wonderfully brave. Spira will have a change that can allow my son the chance to go further. Chappu, we'll keep going and the world will keep changing. His story will be greater than any of ours, "I promise."

Such happy thoughts, I had discarded what was around me. A sudden tremor pulled me back to it, back to the beach, back to what Spira still was. Wakka and Letty were fast approaching, nervous expressions painted upon their countenances. There was smoke in the distance, smoke coming from our home. Soon, terrified screams erupted before us, emanating from the path to the village. Jassu and Datto were the first to arrive, panting as they told us what had happened, but they wouldn't have to. In the distance, a few fiends rampaged forward, though it was blatantly obvious these weren't native to Besaid Island. They were Wendigos, a type of fiend we faced in Macalania. From what Jassu managed to say, they were just a few that arose from the temple.

"Not again!" Came Wakka's expected complaint.

This would mark the second time our temple became a nest for the wretched creatures. As Yuna would tell me later, the first time it happened because Shuyin took hold of the fayth and Valefor was the source of the fiends. He was no longer the force of evil he was then, but there were other problems now.

"Keep Vidina safe, ya? You three stay here! Lu, let's take 'em down!"

Looking over at Vidina safely in Letty's arms, I nodded to Wakka and we headed off. Since the last time we were challenged by the Wendigo, my magic had grown much stronger. The absence from action had also forced me to contain them within, kept within too long. With the proper evocation, I unleashed my Fury. The Wendigos were fearsome indeed, but nothing to an Ultima. After the first wave was dealt with, Wakka and I made it to the bridge where a few Flan blocked our way. Even these weren't normal for Besaid. Some Flares and Ultimas later, we stood before the temple, fiends still pouring from its entrance. Wakka used his Attack Reels maneuver to make shadow copies of his blitz ball, eliminating enough for the two of us to make it inside.

"Let's get to the bottom of this, ya?" Wakka said.

"Wait, something's coming!" I replied, sensing an unusual presence within the building.

"What do you mean, Lu?"

As if to answer him, the temple exploded, sending debris and dust everywhere. The remaining fiends trying to escape were immediately destroyed, but what had killed them remained to be seen. The dust was settling, but we would have our answer sooner than that. Our host was eager to present himself.

"My my, you two still have it." The voice snickered, echoing the same revolting villainy as before, "Quite remarkable considering you're out of practice."

"Seymour." Wakka growled, "I coulda smelled you a mile away."

"Then, why didn't you?" The former Maester commented.

"What is it you want?" I asked, still searching through the smog.

"Does an old friend need a reason to drop in? It's been a few years; I thought I might catch up."

As the air cleared, Wakka and I found a sight we expected, but hoped not to see. Where the temple had stood, we found the torso of a dark creature, shackled and bound as if to hold back its true power. It was the dark one, an Aeon to rival those of the Final Summoning.

Feigning courage, Wakka simply pulled back the arm holding his weapon, saying, "Catch up? How about you catch this!"

With that said, he launched the blitz ball at Anima, only to be met with the item's destruction. It would seem Seymour was a bit more direct than usual. Perhaps he had a scheme ready and was already carrying forth with it. What part did this play in it, though? Was Besaid important to him somehow? No, not Besaid! It had to do with Wakka and I. Did Seymour want revenge?

"What is it you want, Seymour? Yuna had sent you to the Farplane. It was supposed to have been the peace you lacked. Do you still require the vengeance that destroyed you?" I asked of him.

"Oh no, not me." He easily said, shrugging as he appeared from behind his demonic manifestation.

"So there's someone else involved?" Wakka asked, attacking with his Winning Streak.

Anima was able to deflect this strike, as well, while Seymour merely mused at the failed attempt, "Do not know why he'd hold a grudge when even I have none, but…"

As soon as those words left his lips, I knew what he would do and retaliated first, casting Flare at the Aeon. This did not stop either, unfortunately, and I found my magic draining from me as the Maester worked his honed power.

"Now now, don't make this harder than it has to be." Seymour heckled.

I was left powerless and Wakka's attacks weren't working. Had this attack come two years ago, we wouldn't be in such a helpless position. To make the world a better place, to continue its changes, that role no longer fell on our shoulders. It would seem our stories were written and completed. This journey would have to have better characters than us.

Anima struck us down with Pain, which would normally have killed. However, as I'm sure Seymour predicted, we were informed about his return and equipped ourselves accordingly. Even so, the force behind Anima's special ability was enough to subdue most adversaries. We were lucky enough to still be more resilient, but we would not win this battle.

"Oblivion, my Anima." Seymour commanded.

The ground beneath our feet softened and no longer supported our weight. We sank into the earth to the world where Anima's underbelly lay. The stress of being in such a place after a harsh battle was already enough to take us and take us it did. We never even saw the ugly face of Anima's other half.

Instead, I ended up waking to a cavern I had never seen. Wakka lay next to me, still unconscious. He must have taken on more afflictions from the realm than I. As a mage, I had certain fortuitous benefits and compliance with the nature of magical forces. Also luckily, enough time passed us for some of my magic to return to me. I quickly broke our bonds and lifted Wakka to the best of my ability. We needed to escape Seymour's clutches before he could inform us of our purpose in his scheme. The cavern went deep and we seemed to have been taken to one of its many passages. With Wakka indisposed, I found it quite difficult to navigate each of the corridors and alcoves. However, I needed to get to my son and we needed to not be victims our captor could barter with.

Finally, I began to see light in the distance, a sure sign that we were nearing the exit. I knew Seymour would not release us so easily, but if he was to make a move, it'd have to be now. I had enough left to give one good Ultima, which should hopefully distract him long enough to let us escape.

"Ah, so I see you're awake." There it was.

"We're leaving." I told the psychotic Maester, readying my spell.

"Oh, but you haven't met our host. He's quite pleased with this turn of events, isn't that right?" He calmly announced, directing his question behind him.

My gaze moved from Seymour to whom he spoke to, but the darkness of the cavern covered the person's identity. Little by little, it became clearer and I could start making out who…

"No… I-it can't be." I stammered before Requiem drew the gravity of my defeat around me.

_Yuna_…

**Author's Note: **And there you have it. Of course, one must ponder who this other person is and what Seymour's plan is, now involving this new entity. This and more will be revealed in the next exciting chapter! Stay tuned!


	14. Warring Blitz Aces

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note: **01habbo/habbo, no worries on the updates. This time, I set a few things straight and have ample time to spend writing this for a while. Anyway, about Yuna versus Lulu, xD for how you put it, and you never know. That just might be the case, but you guys aren't gonna know unless you stay tuned.

Still, if it was Lulu versus Yuna, I'd say Yuna'd have the advantage. I mean, she's fresh, young, and would have heavy back-up. Seymour, if I remember, was still stronger than Lulu even at her best. Not stat-wise cuz he's a boss and all, but attack-wise, Lulu needs to overdrive to multi-cast. Seymour has the "Multi-" spells and Requiem looks like a bigger badder Ultima. =P Oh, speaking of Requiem, you know, Lulu's unconscious, but you'd think she could handle one Requiem, right? Well, maybe anyway. Just something to think about.

Also, just to clarify, that "_Yuna..._" at the end was Lulu thinking so it could be like habbo said, or it could mean something else. It's more fun that way. ^_^

Either way, that stuff's on hiatus until Lulu wakes up. For now, we're off to the Celsius to check up on Tidus and Shuyin. Remember that? Remember how that kinda exploded a chapter back? Yea, Seymour made sloshpuppies of his brain. =P So now, he's going World War Hulk on the poor guy. And they say siblings can't get along. Well, if you were hoping dream-made clones were any better, you were wrong. It's a good thing we don't get to play with weapons in the real world. Yeesh…

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 13: Warring Blitz Aces**

Yuna

"Tell us the truth!" My blitz ace growled, supplying force behind his words as he shoved his other self into a wall.

"Exactly what truth were you expecting?" Shuyin mused, taking his eyes off his assailant and casually shrugging.

"You know what I'm asking you. You show up out of nowhere and now Seymour's around. It can't be a coincidence and you're the guy who'd benefit from this most."

"How do you figure that?"

"Do you really need me to spell it out for you or are you stalling? Why does Seymour want Lulu, Wakka, and Kimahri? What're you planning?" My love added, emphasizing how serious he was being by throwing a fist Shuyin's way.

Not surprisingly, he caught the punch, but made no additional move. Instead, he just spoke, "That's not a great way to interrogate. Besides, I thought our heart-to-heart before the blitz game settled any suspicions you had about me. I didn't come back by choice, you know?"

That wasn't enough for my love. He broke from Shuyin's grip, elbowed him in his chest, and flipped him onto his back more aggressively than he'd been for some time. Of course, he also didn't know Shuyin as well as I ended up knowing him. For him to be beaten so easily, I believed it was deliberate, a way for Shuyin to show his pursuer that he had been candid with us. The awkward situation continued like this for a while, Shuyin apparently going for an almost Sir Auron-like session. While I had decided to trust Shuyin, his better half did have a point. It was a mess, I had to admit. To many things happened at once and there weren't answers to any of it. Shuyin coming back was already mysterious enough, but then Seymour had to come back. I hated to think about more problems ahead, but the turn of events did appear to help in what Shuyin's motives were in the past. No, thinking like that didn't solve the matters at hand. There couldn't be tension within the group as long as Seymour was out there. Lulu, Wakka, and Kimahri were in danger and everybody was needed to save them.

"Stop! We can't be fighting like this. Not right now! The top priority is for us to make sure Kimahri doesn't get taken by Seymour. We need to rescue Wakka and Lulu. None of that's going to get done if you two keep at this." I finally said.

"I know! That's what I'm trying to get out of this guy!" The blitz ace told me, his strong arms still pinning Shuyin to Shinra's old seat.

"Yunie's right, though! We're not going to get to the bottom of this by fighting each other!" Rikku added.

"Not to mention…" Shuyin was about to start.

"Did I say you could talk?" Sometimes, he can be so hotheaded.

Not that the original was much better. "Actually, you did imply conversation when you asked me to tell you the 'truth', now didn't you?"

"Okay, enough, both of you!" I demanded, stamping my foot on the ground to get their attention.

"Yuna, I'm trying to get to the bottom of this!" He argued.

"Well, your idea is obviously not working so stop!" I retorted.

"Why are you taking his side in this? What about what you told me he did to you?"

I wouldn't be the first to answer him, "Oh, so that's what this is about? I thought I cleared my present name of that already. Yuna would've told you same. That wasn't me entirely." Then, he took a moment to blow a huff, "What was it L said? Can't put blame of the actions of a broken heart?"

"Wrong, I can and I will. They were still stuff you did so you're still responsible."

"I wouldn't disagree."

"No, blaming each other isn't going to get Lulu or Wakka back. Blaming each other isn't going to get us to Mt. Gagazet any sooner. Please calm down!" I interrupted.

"Yea, and besides, Shuyin's different now. He's on our side. You can't just…" Rikku tried to say.

"I'm going to the cabin." He grumbled, pushing past Rikku to get to the lift.

Shuyin stood from Shinra's seat, straightening his collar. He wouldn't look at either of us, walking sternly to the lift himself after it returned from the cabin. "Don't worry. I'm going up top. I think you guys could use less of me for a while."

I sighed after he left. It was amazing how much influence Seymour still had over us, even though we defeated him so many times during my pilgrimage. No matter what, the way he carried himself, the way he spoke to us, it was a lingering scar, I suppose. In any event, I needed to get those two back in order. We had to be united if we wanted to get through this. Seymour was awful while he was alive. He was horrible when he became an unsent. I did not want to think about where he was as he was now.

"Rikku, Shuyin trusts you. Maybe you should talk to him. I'll go get his better half. We have to get past all the finger-pointing." I told my cousin.

"I know. Things just got really messy for everybody, huh?" She replied.

"Yes, but we have to work with what we've been given and Shuyin was just as bad an enemy as Seymour ever was, probably worse. Now that we've got two of him, maybe Seymour won't be half as hard as he was back then."

"Well, guessing what ifs aren't helping. Let's go with your plan, Yunie, and hopefully those two dummies will get the message before we have to save Kimahri."

I nodded to her as she departed before turning my attention to our overly stoic pilot. She'd been the most apprehensive about Shuyin's return and with good reason. Her life was thrown into madness at a whim just because he felt like messing around with someone. Seymour had chosen me to be his summoner so he could take Sin's power for himself. Because he desired this, he used us, he murdered and manipulated, and he wouldn't relent no matter how many times we eventually overcame him. After sending him while we were all inside Sin, I thought that would be the end. He was at peace from all the plots and pain of losing his mother. Shuyin had done the same to Paine, but it was worse for her. Shuyin was hardly as direct as Seymour had been. With the Maester, we knew our enemy. Shuyin let Paine believe for two long years that the person who had hurt her was one of her most trusted friends. What was worse, Shuyin was holding that friend under his control the entire time, breaking up their group and spinning lies all under an innocent name. He had forced Paine to hate someone she cared about and didn't even show sympathy. Just like Seymour, we thought Shuyin was put to rest forever, but he came back, too. It took a lot for Paine to accept his return, but she put her doubts behind her to accept that Shuyin came back as his former self, back when he only cared about protecting his love. Now, with what's happened, what was she thinking? Did she still trust her decision?

"Paine…" I started.

"It'll be just a little longer before we get to Gagazet." She immediately responded.

"Oh, that's okay. I wanted to ask…"

"I'm not really sure. I tried to put it behind me, you all should know I tried. It's hard to believe he would change, but he did show it." She interrupted again, still not turning to face me.

"We can't keep going like this. He's been with us a month already with no incident. If we can't trust him, we're playing into Seymour's hands, but if we do trust him and he turns out to be running his old show again, we'd be playing into his hands." I noted with a sigh.

To this, I finally got Paine to hit the auto-pilot and come to me, "Seems like quite the conundrum then."

"You've suffered from his games the longest, Paine. Does this seem like something he'd do?"

She only shrugged, "To be honest, this Shuyin's done a lot of things uncharacteristic of him. Actually, I've been doing a lot of things uncharacteristic of myself since he's come back."

"Do you think he poses a significant threat?"

"Right now? Right now, I think we started off the right way. Shuyin wouldn't dare pull anything with us questioning his loyalties. He spent an entire month making us believe he was the guy from before the Machina War, the tragic hero. The way his twin's been pointing a finger at him, I think he's going to try and build up our confidence in him again." She suggested.

"So, you do feel that he's up to something?" I asked, noting her words.

"Well… yes and no. I'd love to say for sure that he's up to something. I'd love to tell you that we can trust him. The truth is that he's manipulative, so much so that you can't be sure what he tells you is the truth or what he does is out of penance." She explained, moving to Shinra's monitor, "I want to believe that he's Lenne's Shuyin again and Seymour showing up was just some random thing, but coincidences don't often happen to us, huh?"

"Spira always has to give us a global epidemic, doesn't it?"

"Life's not worth living otherwise." She shrugged again, "Well, like you said, we'll need him to stop Seymour and save the Ronso Elder. I'm gonna go talk to him."

After she said that, she immediately took off for the lift. Not wanting her alone with her feuding thoughts, even for the brief moments going up top, and hoping to gain some inspiration off of her when I went to speak with Shuyin's better, I hopped into the lift with her. We were quiet for those seconds, which made it seem a lot longer, but I prayed my presence kept her from wavering in her decision. As soon as the doors opened, she exited and found Rikku, putting a hand on her shoulder to show she wanted to talk to Shuyin herself. Rikku moved off to the side and pretended not to pay attention to their conversation, though her incessant glimpses at the two gave her motives away easily.

"So, what brings you up here? Ready to take off my head already?" Shuyin casually asked.

"Ready? Always. But not before we make sure that the Ronso Elder and the other two guardians are safe from Seymour." Paine replied.

"Hmm? How can you be sure I'm not with Seymour? You know he'll be there when we reach Gagazet. If your buddy's right, that would be a good time for me to betray all of you."

"If that's the case, you wasted a lot of time gaining our trust to just throw it away like that. Not very smart of you."

"Excellent deduction, Dr. P. So, what do you propose?" Shuyin said with a smirk.

"Seymour, then we'll figure out what's going on with you." Paine scoffed, crossing her arms.

I decided that would be all I needed to hear and I didn't want to keep the other blitzer waiting. Both were ill-tempered and we didn't need one more problem to add to the list. Closing the lift doors, I took a few moments to prepare what I wanted to make him understand. Oddly, when I went to have the lift go to the cabin, it stalled for a bit, something it never did before. Perhaps, it needed some maintenance since Buddy and Brother left. Rikku was our only remaining engineer and she had been preoccupied lately.

When I got to the cabin, I noticed he wasn't at the bar or the floor. I went to ask Barkeep if he'd seen him around, to which he replied that he had spoken to him for a while. My blitzer was quite beside himself, thinking Shuyin had turned us all to his side and blind to what he felt was actually going on. Barkeep said that he was rambling and raving about what Lulu and Wakka might be going through, what Shuyin and Seymour might do with Kimahri, even going so far as to worry about Auron's safety given those we thought were deceased had revived. There was worry in his tone and confusion with what he detailed to Barkeep, which only worsened as he became frustrated. Staying in the cabin had been a bad idea on his part because then he began accusing Shuyin of lots of things, most of which didn't make sense. Seymour was very hard on him when he was guardian to me on my pilgrimage. He worried about me a lot then, always thinking about the end result when we would reach Zanarkand. Having the added irritations by Seymour's persistence, I think it only made him blame every trouble we encountered on the guado Maester to simplify circumstances. However, by doing that to himself, Seymour coming back only gave him that much more anxiety than it gave the rest of us.

"Barkeep, where is he now?" I asked.

I wouldn't need an answer from him in the end. Paine contacted me via speaker to tell me that my love had had enough and decided to engage Shuyin before dealing with Seymour. My guess was that he didn't want the possibility of a team-up posing a danger to us. Quickly, I headed back for the lift and got it back to the deck. When I got there, I saw that both of them had their swords drawn while Rikku and Paine were trying to defuse the situation.

"Shuyin! Don't encourage him!" Rikku whined.

"It's the only thing he gets. Don't worry, Rikku, I'm not gonna hurt him. Maybe a little embarrassment instead, eh?" Shuyin replied, slamming his blade into Brotherhood.

"Oh? I think you're the one that's gonna be embarrassed, gramps!"

Paine intervened with her own sword by then, "Oh, this is productive. We do have other issues right now, or is impending doom not really a big deal?"

"Well, I'm not gonna let him add to that 'impending doom', Paine. Nobody's going to manipulate Yuna again."

I gasped from where I stood, finding myself only watching the scenario play out. Behind everyone, I could see Gagazet looming in the distance. We were closing in on it so time wasn't something we had as a buffer to figure the current brawl out. I didn't really know what to say if the reason for his aggression was to protect me.

"Rikku, Paine, stand aside. It's obvious you two aren't getting through to him with your words so let me with my sword." Shuyin calmly stated, diverting his block to unsteady my love.

He regained his footing easily, which seemed to be just what Shuyin wanted. The fight didn't look to favor Shuyin, but that was probably the point. The last swordfight those two had ended quickly with the warfare experienced swordsman coming out on top. Victory wasn't what he was after this time. He wanted time to make his points and have his double warmed up when we were to face Seymour.

"You're sloppy, you know?" He told my love, parrying but not capitalizing.

"You've made a mess of things. I won't hold back!"

"Then, you'll lose. Paine already sees it. I thought you were one of the people who stopped Sin, so if she can see the flaws in your attack patterns, why can't you?" Shuyin questioned, making an approach of his own.

It was blocked, but the blitz ace wasn't done yet. "So, I'm making mistakes. It can't be helped with you."

"It had better be helped. From what I hear, you've already lost two of your friends. The ronso, Kimahri, needs you right now and you're stuck focused on beating me. I don't care whose side you think I'm fighting on, fact is, I'm fighting on yours right now. Seymour should be your target in this mission, but you're only going to end up getting in the way if your eyes are trained on me." Following that statement, he ducked one more slash, rolled to the side for another, then pulled in very close to prevent a lunge.

"What? You're a little close for comfort."

"Yea? What are you gonna do about it? You see how I did that? I can see what's going on in that blockhead of yours. I also know that your heart's in the right place. You want to protect Yuna, I get it. Focus on what's harming her then. Right now, that's not me. Right now, that's the fear of Kimahri being hurt. There should be nothing else going on in your mind besides that." Shuyin stated, a stern visage glaring into my love's eyes before he casually turned, looking into the distance, "And I'd suggest you hurry up."

I wouldn't need to wonder why he said that. Seconds later, the Celsius was rocked by a tremendous force. Paine immediately left for the bridge, but Rikku's gasp let me know where I was needed. Looking over the side showed me that Seymour was expecting us. He had summoned Anima to attack the airship while he proceeded to fend off the juvenile ronso defending Kimahri.

"If you'll excuse me." Shuyin abruptly added, leaping from the airship to the battle below.

**Author's Note: **So, before things really explode, Shuyin takes off. Will Tidus get a clue? Well, he had better. After all, they need the "dream that can end dreams" or they're sunk. *sigh* These athletes can be a wee thickheaded, eh?

Another note, where have my reviewers gone? :'( Come back! I miss you! I do appreciate the reading and all, but it'd be cool to get feedback, as well. I'm a loon for crazy ideas from fans. =P Anyway, hope this chapter gets you lot enthused enough to leave a few words. =D 'Til next time, don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things!


	15. Gagazet Rendezvous

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note: **Well, I remember a few readers said this story wasn't as action filled as my last, but that should change. There's just some ground I needed to cover so uneventful chapters were necessary. Also, this story isn't about a war like Eternal Love was, but even so, you've got me writing it and I'm not one to make uneventful stories. ;) Worry not, my readers. There be action yet.

To RidRX: Well, if you make a profile, you can add me to author alerts and it'll e-mail you automatically with updates no matter what. Wow for how much you read all at once. I've known a few of my readers to have done that. You know who you are. =P I love you lot for that.

On Auron, well, you never know. I mean, last chapter, I had habbo thinking of a Yuna betrayal. Right now, anything could happen. =P

On Vegnagun, again, never know. Actually, if I remember Int/Last Mission right, Shinra has some details with Vegnagun that might may want to add to this story so you just might see it in this one. Not sure which ultimate form you mean, though, but if you meant Seymour's Omnis form, I think I'll be including that somewhere later. If you meant Vegnagun, I'd believe you mean the cannon thing. Again, you never know. =P Cannon fodder Shinra. *snicker* habbo might like that one. She's got Strongest Shinra jitters.

By wyvern thing, I'm thinking Valefor, but Valefor wouldn't make for a good final battle, me thinks. Still, I did like the scenario I had for Valefor versus the Gullwings so we might get that going, too.

For finding Lenne and such, habbo actually made a similar comment so I'll just put those two together under her:

To habbo: Lenne appearing? Probably somewhere down the road. Your This Moment characters? (.net/s/2568837/1/) Never! MWAA!!! Anima's gonna play a good role for a while, though i don't intend on making another FFX. As always, i do intend to make mentions of certain bits from the game. There are a few more things that haven't been elaborated on in the fanfics I've read and the games themselves and so, it gives me a unique opportunity to bedazzle you lot with more story. =P

On that one, a few characters and devices from the game and my stories are probably making a comeback with some different roles. Anyway, for the future. For now, we've got Gagazet, a crazy formerly dead, formerly honourable, always sinister and lovable Maester, a hostage situation, and lots of nostalgia. =D Let's see what you guys get out of it.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 14: Gagazet Rendezvous**

Rikku

"If you'll excuse me." Shuyin mumbled, hopping off the Celsius without warning.

What happened? It was such a slow going already and just because that meanie Seymour came back, shouldn't make us point fingers at Shuyin. He came back on his own and he kept lingering on what he did, how he didn't really belong, and he was totally awkward about the new life he was given. I knew he could talk and I knew he was very crazy back then, but I couldn't believe he wasn't being real with us. Paine could vouch for that; I'm sure of it. Out of all of us, Paine was the one with the most to hate Shuyin for and she showed it. I'm sure she just wanted to let the guy go once we stopped him from using Vegnagun. It must have been so hard for her to see him back and with a new lease on life to boot. Still, the two of them struck some weird warrior deal or whatever it was that kept her from stabbing him in his sleep. Now, just because that poopiehead of a Maester had to come back, everybody was unsure of him again.

Shuyin's dumber half took off right after, hopefully focusing on Seymour like he'd been told to. Meanwhile, a Multi-Firaga struck the engines of the Celsius and Paine called for evasive maneuvers. Brother wasn't the best at piloting under fire, but he did the best he could. I looked to Yunie just as she nodded to Paine. The Celsius couldn't handle so much punishment as, even Shuyin told me, it was meant for cargo transportation and reconnaissance, so the three of us needed to go help the two blitz aces.

"Y!" Yunie started off.

"R!" I continued, running to the edge of the airship, taking Paine's hand while I was at it.

"P!"

We made the drop together, Paine spherechanging to Full Throttle to propel the three of us down. I changed to Gunner and both Yunie and I began firing at Anima and its terrible master, preventing them from making any moves. While we were at that, Shuyin had already landed and was taking Seymour's attention off us along with his double. The two of them seemed to be working well together, their sword skills forcing Seymour to cast lots of protective White Magic on himself. When Paine landed, Yunie went right away to help them. I noticed nearby the two unconscious bodies of ronso slumped next to each other further up, towards where Seymour was headed. One had blue fur while the other was a black ronso so I knew it must have been Kimahri and Garik. Seymour had gotten to them sooner than we could and already managed to knock them out. I began telling myself to concentrate since even if I was worried about Kimahri, I couldn't let myself forget about the mission. Anima needed to be taken care of first.

"Rikku, can you distract it long enough for me to get in my Fiers?" My partner asked of me as she used Fright to slow Anima, to minimal effect.

"No problem! Berserker should do!" I answered, firing a few shots to get the Dark Aeon's attention.

It launched a Pain at me, but I managed to divert it to one of my pistols, spherechanging to Berserker before getting in a Howl attack to prepare for my next move. It attacked again, but in my current dressphere, I was very quick. Within moments, I was ready to hit it with Hurt. Using my speed, I climbed behind it and used the dressphere's Hurt ability to put a serious hurting on Anima.

After I was done, Paine let me know that her attack was all charged, too. I swiftly leapt back to the ground as Full Throttle gave the Aeon another spanking. We figured that was it for it, but Seymour managed to cast Protect on it, halving the damage for his creature before taking his attention back to the dual blitzers. Yuna took her attention off him and was already in Dark Knight form, casting Demis and Drains on Anima to get its attention.

Nodding over to me, she ordered, "Rikku, get to Kimahri and Garik! I think I saw Kimahri waking up!"

I looked over and saw that Kimahri was slowly getting up, shielding Garik from the fight. Dashing over there, I saw that Garik's horn was broken. Poor guy. When Kimahri became Ronso Elder, Garik wasn't satisfied with his leadership in dealing with the guado. Eventually, Gagazet's voice told him his vengeance for what they did two years ago was wrong and he let go of it for the moment. It was obvious that Seymour showing up would make his hate come right back up. Now, he was in the same situation as Kimahri; a broken horn was bad for a ronso. It symbolized weakness for them.

"How could you!" I screamed at Seymour, going into Berserk mode.

As I stormed to him, Paine left Yuna with Anima, her wings let out a Venom Wing and Steel Feather attack on the Maester while Shuyin and his other self kept him busy dodging and casting protective spells. Getting near him, I circled to find a good opening then let him have it with both my claws, scraping a good chunk off his back. He flinched and Shuyin took advantage, but Anima got the drop on him, using a Firaga to send him a safer distance away. Kimahri started using Lancet on him, but that only got our buddy some way unneeded attention. Surprisingly, Seymour recovered from my attack very quickly and got back to Kimahri. Since he hadn't been adventuring lately, Kimahri wasn't as strong as he used to be and a single Multi-Blizzaga knocked him back off his feet, leaving both of them prey for the guy.

"Kimahri!" Yunie shouted, leaving Anima to face Seymour.

The situation wasn't pretty. Seymour held Kimahri and Garik behind him, threatening to use his Requiem spell, something much stronger than the Ultimas we knew how to make. After being beat up that much, it could do really serious damage to Kimahri and Garik so nobody made a move. Our blitzers were definitely showing how mad they were about it, the both of them clenching their swords and growling. Paine was fidgeting with her wings, not knowing if she could make a move without Seymour noticing and taking it out on the ronso.

"Seymour, don't do this." Yunie finally spoke up, holding her hands up to her heart, "If you want revenge, take it from me, not Kimahri and Garik. They've done nothing to you!"

"Oh, but my dear, he did or have you forgotten the lance he stabbed me with?" That was that meanie's response.

I growled this time, "You were already an unsent by then! And you were trying to kill us! What did you expect?"

To that, he just gave me an evil grin, "My my, feisty are we? Well, attack? I'm not forcing you not to, am I?"

The Requiem in his palm started glowing brighter, meaning it was ready and was just waiting to be released. Everybody gasped, but Seymour smiled at us and made it dimmer. It was just a feint. He wanted us to be scared so we wouldn't make a move.

"Now I have you, every last one. Anima! Pain!" He commanded.

I had to run. Unlike Yunie and Paine, all I had was my speed to keep me safe from it. Yunie's guy was also running scared like me, but Shuyin just blocked the attacks with his sword, eying Seymour as he did so for any chance of getting Kimahri and Garik to safety. We were all scattered, but I knew Shuyin had the right idea. If something could just distract Seymour long enough, I could get in there and save them both. First things first, I spherechanged back to Thief and kept dodging the Pain bursts. Almost knowing my plan, Shuyin began giving me a lot of cover, his eyes suggesting that I should keep my eyes on our target while he kept his watch over me. Everybody else was struggling to fend off Anima while still distracted by the hostage problem.

Thankfully, I noticed Garik coming to, but worried about what his first reaction might be, especially with his horn broken. I tried to get his attention, but without also getting Seymour's was hard. With a little luck, our good blitzer buddy stumbled near Seymour just in time and I threw a pebble at Garik to make him look at me. With his eyes set on me, I signaled for him to get Seymour off of us, more specifically off of me. He seemed to understand and waited until he knew Seymour was paying too much attention to the others to hit him with his own Lancet ability. With Seymour turning his attention to them, I quickly got in there and used Master Thief on him, knocking him for a loop while I got Kimahri and Garik away from him. Yunie took notice of that and capitalized on the move by sending Darkness at the Maester, stopping him from hitting me in the back with the overdrive.

"Thanks Yunie!" I waved to her, letting Garik take Kimahri to safety before getting back to the fight.

"Paine, Full Throttle's good, but it's too slow for Seymour. Get out of it!" Yunie told her, standing guard for her while a wave of Thundagas came their way.

Paine nodded and went to Dark Knight also, knowing that anything else was dangerous with Anima around. I decided that was a good idea and changed to Dark Knight myself. While the three of us took on the Aeon, Shuyin and his twin went in for Seymour. Unfortunately for him, I think Seymour knew we'd try that and had boosted Anima, making it quicker to respond than our Dark Knight armor could let us react. It knocked each of us off our feet before assaulting Shuyin with its overdrive. Before I could even get up, I watched him sinking into the ground.

"No!" I screamed, struggling back to my feet.

Meanwhile, the other him was dealing with tons of Black Magic, too much to get near the Maester. Taking a chance, I went back into Thief and hit him with a sweep kick. The two of us took on Seymour, but I kept thinking about Shuyin. How was he doing with Oblivion? Anima was one of the strongest Aeons Yunie ever used and it was really hard to fight it the last time we had to fight it in Macalania Temple. That was a bad idea, not to keep my head in the fight because I didn't have a whole lot of protection in my current dressphere. I was lucky that Seymour's Requiem dissolved before he could make use of it, but he still had an Ultima up his sleeve. Sure I got away from the major damage, but the ripples of Black Magic were still strong enough to take me out of the fight.

Soon after I fell, my partner faded, too, taking way too many hits with the Multi-spells. They eventually broke through his defense and then Seymour only needed a good Thunder to conk him out. Yunie took over then, but leaving Anima only made me worry even more. The overdrive usually didn't last this long so I was hoping they'd beat it soon and get Shuyin back. Realizing that Dark Knight was also too slow for Seymour's magic, Yunie spherechanged to Black Mage. For every spell Seymour used, Yunie countered with the element it was weak to. That let Paine have time to keep up her attack on Anima.

"A duel of the mystic arts, m'lady? You shall discover I've had much more practice with malevolent magics than you." Seymour grinned.

"That might be true, but I was a High Summoner, too. My goal was to rescue people from Sin. Yours was to destroy them with it. That alone means I can't let you come back to this world. You were sent to the Farplane. You should've stayed there." Yunie answered, a pretty confident statement, wouldn't you say?

Seymour was out of it for two years. In that time, we took on a guy who was way worse than he could ever be and my cousin started getting a voice of her own. She didn't need guardians anymore. She was her own person and even grew to be a strong leader, taking us all the way to the Farplane's heart to stop Spira's next threat. What was Maester Seymour to that? All he could do was hope and pray that Sin would absorb him so he could use its power for what he wanted. Yunie didn't need a crutch like that. In the end, Seymour was nothing more than an annoying pest during her pilgrimage. He was just the little fly that we eventually swatted and sent.

Still, his spellcasting was pretty good and I knew the Black Mage didn't have as much mana as it could. Just by enduring, Seymour outlasted Yunie and, when her magic ran out, he hit her with his strongest spells. Before she was down and out, though, Yunie changed to Alchemist and planted a Mega Phoenix, instantly getting everybody back up. Then, she followed up with a Mega Potion and we were fighting strong.

"Shouldn't underestimate your fiancé like that, good Maester. She's full of clever stunts like that." Yunie's guy commented, eagerly revving for a second go.

That's when the best part of our fight happened. Anima suddenly lurched and seemed to be in pain. Paine stood there just as awestruck as the rest of us since she hadn't done anything to have caused that kind of reaction. Without warning, Anima gave a horrified wail as light flooded through its mouth. The light grew wider, sucking pieces of the Aeon into its force. As more and more of it dissolved, we could begin seeing a shape inside the light. It looked like it was holding something up and the light was actually coming from it. A short bit later, the light began to die down and, as we looked on, Shuyin appeared, lowering his sword.

"Huh, Dark Aeon." He sneered, giving a sly glare to Seymour.

I couldn't believe it and I definitely showed it, but I also knew we had a baddie to beat so even with that display of cool, there was more to do. Shuyin immediately took off for Seymour who went back to the magical strikes. They were not much of a match for Shuyin's speed and sword, though, and it was worse on Seymour when the other blitzer joined in. Yunie and Paine also added to the one-sided battle, but that was a mistake. From the long struggle, Seymour had enough time to charge another overdrive and finally hit everybody with Requiem. Shuyin was saved when Yunie whacked him away with the butt of her gun, but I thought about our next tactics. A face-off was getting us nowhere. We could use a guerrilla tactic and that was my specialty in my current dressphere. Looking up, I could see that Seymour was near a ledge. If I could get there while Shuyin kept up his attacks, I could get the drop on him.

Turning my attention back to them for a second, I saw that Seymour finally got his staff out, using it to block the very ferocious saber strikes. It was pretty effective against Shuyin, too, since you could easily spot how much fighting Anima during its Oblivion had tired the guy. His slashing was getting slower and he looked exhausted while Seymour was going strong, what with being a master at Black Magic. The piles of spells were draining on Shuyin, which meant I needed to get up to that ledge fast.

"Don't tell me the terror of Zanarkand is nothing more than this quivering mass." Seymour taunted, pelting Shuyin with another Flare.

"Heh, just haven't caught my second wind is all."

"Or could it be you were never a worthy opponent without your powers in death."

"You think wrongly of me, oh dear Maester. I've had my fair share of victims back in the day. Tough luck, there aren't any old records of the war. You could check my stats." He corrected, lazily whipping his weapon only to be blocked by the staff.

"While you fended off humans and machina, our generation dealt with Sin itself. We're survivors, you see. I was a survivor."

"That is until you met Yuna and co. Then, you sure didn't survive too well."

"Alas, it would seem both our ambitions fell before love." Seymour threw another Multi-Thundaga at Shuyin after saying that.

The war-faring blitzer only gave a huff, "Love didn't do anything for you. You didn't care for Yuna. That guy over there, he cared. All you thought about was taking her as a tool. Unless, of course, you were speaking on Sin, but loving a stinking mass of centuries old carcasses begs the attention of psychotherapy."

Seymour didn't take too kindly to that remark and threw another multi at the guy. Tired as he was, he didn't notice the Ultima Seymour had waiting in his hand. After getting in another stroke with his sword, Seymour pulled in and planted the spell right into him. Sure enough, that was it for the guy, but I was in position. When the spell finished and Seymour began gloating over his victory, that when I dropped from my perch, landing right squat on his shoulders as I took the momentum I got to jam both my daggers into his neck.

"Rikku!" Shuyin gasped.

Pulling the weapons out of him, I twisted, locking my legs, and pulled back into a handstand, using my legs to throw Seymour right off the side of the mountain. When I landed, I could still hear his scream echoing while he fell, garbled by the blood that must've been flooding into his mouth.

"Rikku…" Shuyin gasped again, struggling to pick himself up.

"Did I do good?" I asked, going over to help him up.

"Well, that's one way to solve a problem."

"Though, if I remember right, there's a few other problems still to deal with." Paine started, helping Yunie up.

She was right. Now that I killed him, Seymour had the chance to come back as an unsent again. An unsent Seymour was even more annoying than a living patricidal one. And he still didn't give us back Lulu or Wakka. I hoped they were alright.

"C'mon. We've got work to do." Shuyin stated, waving us back to the Celsius.

**Author's Note: **Did you think that was how it would go? Oh, but of course, that's not the end. C'mon. We all know Seymour better than that. He' s not exactly the bad that knows to take a hint. But, there are some differences this time. Keep reading to find out. ;)

So far, the reviews have me thinking you guys want to see as follows:

-Lenne and Shuyin finding Lenne and going all swoon, love, hugs, and kisses, etc..

-Seymour forms

-Seymour Aeons

-Vegnagun

Well, I'm not much for the gamble, but I tell you what, I think there's a good chance of all that coming in this story. =P Keep your eyes open for the latest!


	16. The Blitzer and the Mage

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note:**RIDRX ~ Oh, you mean Evrae? Aw, I couldn't have Seymour summon it or anything. Evrae was a fiend that guarded Bevelle's skies and it was defeated. However, I'll definitely keep in mind an air battle to rival it.

You have no idea how many times that idea has crossed my mind to put Auron and Takuma together in battle. I had cast Takuma in Rurouni Kenshin's master's light with a few derivations of universal bushido concepts, but having him mentor over Shuyin coincidentally made him fill an Auron-like role for him, didn't it? Well, I'm not sure about it as I believe Auron accepted his death in Final Fantasy X's ending so he's no longer on the roster, but I'll think about it. Takuma, on the other hand, well maybe. To be honest, that chapter in my earlier story also concluded Takuma's arc, but nothing is set in stone with OCs, right? We'll see. =)

I'm still unsure what you mean by "just his head" for X-2. In the game, you start at its tail, then fight the leg, then the torso, and finally fend off Shuyin at the top once the cannon-mode is unleashed. Still, with what is mentioned in X-2's Last Mission, I think I'll probably make my own mentions. Last Mission's storyline hasn't happened in this story yet. Remember, this fanfiction takes place almost immediately after X-2 and only a single month has passed since the start. Last Mission occurs three months after the events of X-2 so we've a ways to go. =)

I'm not sure why no one else has reviewed me, not even habbo this chapter. I had believed action was what kept my readers from being interested, but the last chapter was action and even a turning point of sorts. It makes me sad. :( Still, it doesn't daunt my confidence in you all and I know you're still reading as long as I'm still writing, which I promised to do more consistently anyway.

In light of this, Seymour met his end last chapter, didn't he? Well, his mortal life ended a second time anyway. As we all know, death never kept that guado away for long. He was a particularly annoying person in X, wasn't he? The more things change, the more they stay the same, but maybe he's still an ace up his sleeve.

** Spira: The Eternal Discord****  
**

**Chapter 15: The Blitzer and the Mage**

Tidus

I was totally shocked. I mean utterly and completely dumbfounded, my mouth gaped wide open, eyes bulged out, and everything. Seymour was one of the biggest asses we had to deal with on Yuna's Pilgrimage and who takes him out this time? No, not me. Not that shadow guy. No, it was the sweet little fifteen year-old now seventeen year-old, hyper Al Bhed girl that did Seymour in. She literally stabbed him in the back and threw him off the mountain.

"You might wanna shut that thing. You're starting to drool and it's mixing expressions." Shuyin grumbled, rubbing the back of his head as the bunch of us gathered around where Rikku did her thing just a moment ago.

"So, did I do good?" Rikku asked him again, hanging her head like she did something wrong or something.

Shuyin had a furrow in his brow and didn't say anything, which was weird, so I decided to tell Rikku for the guy, saying, "Rikku, that was awesome! Yea, you did plenty good. Right, Shuyin?"

Still no answer, but he did take a deep breath and place a hand over his face to rub his temple, before mumbling a, "We've got other problems to handle anyway."

"Seymour's going to return as an unsent again, isn't he?" Yuna inserted, walking over to the three of us, Paine supporting her.

"No doubt in my mind about it. What happened on your pilgrimage is getting a repeat, it seems." Shuyin answered lowly, turning away from all of us.

I didn't trust him at all, well, at least I couldn't take the chance, but the rest of them looked like Sin was back. I had to do something to stop them from giving in. Sure it was way overkill already and none of us should have to keep dealing with these stupid events again and again like this. Sure Yuna's been through far more than any person should. Even so, we're living this. That's all there is to it. I didn't plan on using my new life hiding away or giving in to the dumb stuff Spira gave us sometimes.

"C'mon, guys. Lulu and Wakka are counting on us to put that whiner back in his place. Vidina need his folks back so we should just get going. Y, R, P? Um, rearin' and ready to go?" I started chanting, then turned to my com to get Brother and Buddy to get the Celsius back to us.

Together, we boarded the airship and made for the cabin. Shuyin, on the other hand, decided to head to the deck instead, still showing his weird upset face. What's up with that guy?

"So, he's unsent again. From how you're taking this, guess picnic's canceled?" Paine said to start us off.

"He was terrible. One of his incarnations was responsible for the deaths of many ronso and another killed Maester Kinoc." Yuna added.

"Doesn't sound nearly as bad as Shuyin."

"Well, he definitely takes a back seat there, but he was still very terrible and who knows what new tricks he's got this time." Rikku noted.

"Yea, I don't really know how horrible Shuyin could've been for you guys, but I know Seymour and he did some things that I'm sure I can't forgive him for." I finally got in, clenching a fist.

"Well, he's unsent now so what do you think he'll do? Before, he just followed us on my pilgrimage and tried to take his revenge on us while he waited for Sin. We just stopped him from kidnapping Kimahri, but he's still got Lulu and Wakka. I don't know what he plans to do, but we should figure out a motive as quickly as we can." Yuna suggested, walking over to the map grid.

"Hey, he started up showing up at Luca, right? Wasn't that where we first saw him back on your pilgrimage?" I asked Yuna.

"Yes, and then he went to Besaid for Lulu and Wakka before going to Mount Gagazet. What are you suggesting?"

"Well, scratch Besaid and what do we have?" I asked rhetorically before adding, "I think he's deliberately picking out spots where we had to deal with him. Some nostalgia thing, what do you think?"

"It does make sense. He's twisted enough to try something like that." Rikku nodded, "So, where does that leave?"

"We fought him in Macalania after Luca when we found out about what he did to Maester Jyscal, right?" I said.

"And then in Bevelle when we found out how Yevon really operated. Wakka was so upset." Yuna mentioned, her thoughts obviously going to the two hostages.

"That's right! Baralai and the New Yevon guys! They might be in trouble, Yunie." Rikku quickly chirped, running to the console to contact the Praetor.

It was funny. Of the adventures Yuna had while I was gone, she seemed to want to keep Shuyin away from Baralai most of all. I knew the guy possessed the Crimson Squad survivors, Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai, but ended up settling on Nooj before making the mess he made. Baralai was the last one possessed by the guy when he went off on his blow up Spira kick. Actually, of the three, the only one I hadn't really met was Baralai.

"Rikku… Sorry about Luca… Hope it was… good game. Anything… do for you guys?" He said as he came on the Comsphere.

"Hey, Baralai is it? It's nice to meet you!" I hollered into the screen, giving a casual wave.

When he looked at me, his eyes almost glazed over, but he awkwardly cleared his throat before giving a, "It's nice to meet you. You… look just like… that man…"

"Baralai, have you noticed anything out of place over there in Bevelle?" Rikku asked to get us back on track.

"No… out of the ordinary. Why?"

"No worries, Praetor! We just were curious. How've you been?"

While Rikku ran the distraction, Yuna pulled me back over to Paine, "So, not Bevelle. I guess that means he's going for Macalania."

"What's the temple like now? I mean, Shiva was sent, right?"

"I'm actually not sure myself. Shuyin took control of Shiva, too, so he might have done the same to that temple, but we didn't receive a wave when the Besaid, Kilika, and Djose Temples started flooding with fiends so we can only hope it was left the way it should have been."

"Hmm, field trip, anyone?" Paine interjected, standing up and going to give Brother the plans.

The rest of us took a deep breath to calm our nerves. Lulu and Wakka needed us to take out that jackass quick and very very painfully. Still, it was impossible to hide the fact that in the backs of our minds, we were all desperately trying to fight back ideas that they were already…

"Macalania is we being here!" Thank you Brother.

When we got off the airship, Seymour was already there, waiting for us just a few feet from it. He seemed so normal for having died only a couple hours ago. It was just like he was back in Bevelle two years ago. If it hadn't been for the fact we all saw and made him die, I know I couldn't have believed he was unsent.

"Seymour…" I hissed, staring at him intensely to make sure he didn't pull anything.

"Oh, you've arrived just as predicted. My, I guess I will owe him some gil after all. What a bother. Still, I trumped him on my passing, didn't I? Who would have guessed that sweet innocent…"

"Where are Lulu and Wakka?" Shuyin abruptly said, his voice making it seem like he was where I was back there in Bevelle.

"So direct, Shuyin. Where have your manners gone? Worry not, those two are perfectly fine. I actually felt a tinge of guilt over the blitzer fellow. After all, were it not for the true Yevon ways I harbored, he would have blindly followed the teachings for the remainder of his days. The other one, however, tis a pity."

"What did you do to Lulu?!" Yuna screamed, pushing past us both.

"Oh, twas not I, m'lady, I assure you. Still, I do estimate she'll be worse for wear a while yet."

"What are we just chit chatting for? Save the gossip for later." Shuyin stated, unleashing his sword and charging in.

Naturally, I wasn't one to miss out on a fight, especially if it could help solve the Shuyin dilemma, so I did the same. Seymour only smirked and gave a small shake of his head. See, Anima was already summoned, just waiting on us to make a move. It quickly restrained us with some spare chains and popped out of the snow in front of the ex-Maester. Meanwhile, the guy went off into the temple.

"Guys, stay back for now. Hostilities might jeopardize their well-being. Let Seymour play his game. If I can guess what's going on, Lulu and Wakka should be inside Macalania Temple." Shuyin noted, slamming his weapon into the chains to break them.

"We should go to the temple then, right?" Yuna asked.

Actually, thinking it through, I realized what Shuyin was talking about, "No Yuna, he's right. Seymour's an unsent now, but he's got hostages again, just like on Gagazet. It's too risky separating and that might be exactly what he wants. Remember, YRP has both you and Rikku and that's a deal he couldn't pass up. It's too dangerous."

While I was at it with the speech, Shuyin had gone to work on Anima, blocking the Pain's with his sword as he sliced and stabbed at it. Not letting the guy get all the credit, I focused my energy and ran to it, kicking off its arm as it tried to scratch me and getting some serious air. When I was high enough, I sent all of that energy into the Brotherhood and whipped it down into the ground. Energy Rain's power soaked into it, surrounding Anima before overloading and sending the Aeon for a ride. Before it could come back down, though Shuyin was on it, using the splintering debris as steppingstones. Getting his sword into position, he plowed right over Anima's middle, dashing across its body before yanking the thing out right at the top of the Aeon's enough, Seymour's mom didn't last long after that.

"Now for the temple." Shuyin calmly said when he landed.

When the doors opened, we saw them. Wakka and Lulu were tied up and hung over the door leading into the Cloister of Trials. Lulu was totally out of it, but Wakka looked like he was just getting up, making very weak, but definitely apparent, struggles. Seymour was facing them just like he had been two years ago, staring at the door to wait for Yuna. There were no guado around this time. The guy was all alone, except that he was an experienced unsent this time. Both me and Shuyin had our swords clenched tight and Yuna, Rikku, and Paine all got on their best dresspheres. It was a standstill for some minutes until Seymour finally addressed our appearance.

"Do you still remember this moment, Yuna?" He asked, slowly turning to us, "It was when your guardians were shown my history. This was the moment you made a choice, one that resulted in my untimely demise. How fitting then that it should be where I deal you a lasting blow."

"You won't." Yuna simply answered.

"Oh? You plan on stopping me as you did two years in our past? I don't suppose I need to remind you how it is different this time. I'm not the man I was when you defeated me here."

"We defeated you several times after."

"My mistake. I underestimated you, Lady Yuna. Just as you are now, you were my white rose, pure and innocent, but ever protected by your thorns. Regardless, I should warn you, I'm also not the same unsent I was back then, either."

"Doesn't matter." Shuyin replied this time, "Unsent is unsent. All you need is a good hacking and a sending off. I don't know how you got here or if it has anything to do with me, but that's all I need to know about how to fend you off."

Seymour let out a huff and shrugged, "Yes yes, we've heard this before. You know, the two of you shelter her far too much for her own good. And yours for that matter. It is the thorniest of rose bushes that seldom blossom. Isn't that right, Yuna?"

"Shut it, Seymour! She's done listening to you yammer!" I yelled, two seconds away from pouncing.

"Case and point." Seymour said, shrugging again, "Anyway, I guess if you're all going to give me the cold shoulder, I ought to return the favour!"

Suddenly, powder snow started to swirl around the room, coating everything in sight, but collecting mostly around Seymour. When he was done, he looked almost like what he did in Bevelle, but transparent, like his body was made up totally of ice. As expected, his trusty mortibody things were around, too, this time in the shape of living snow. Two of them latched themselves onto Lulu and Wakka and began glowing red. That could only mean one thing.

"Look, they're sucking life from them!" Rikku yelped from her machina.

"Scan's naming him Seymour Cryos. Must be from his cold disposition." Paine added, "Looks like the mortifrosts are feeding him. We should probably take those out first."

"No, they're a distraction. That's why he's surrounded by them. Go for him." Shuyin suggested, and he was right.

Those mortibodies were usually meant to support Seymour so going after them sounded like a good bet, but it just slowed things down. Taking out Seymour would take out all those things with him anyway.

"Revenge; they told me it was best cold, but I hope I'm not being too cliché with this form." Seymour taunted, hurling three large icicles at us.

"Oh no, far from it." Shuyin hollered, smashing one to bits with an axe kick.

"Oh good. I wouldn't have wanted to produce any negative publicity."

The entire temple began to shake and icicles began to rain from the ceiling. Before they hit, though, all of them abruptly shattered and fell on us as more powder snow. Shuyin, Rikku, and Yuna quickly shook it off and went to work, but me and Paine didn't get what the fuss was… until it hardened and spiked. Then, it really hurt. Luckily for the two of us, Shuyin and Yuna were on the scene, Shuyin whacking the guy a few times, while Yuna used White Pollen and hit us with a Heat Whirl to melt the ice.

"And that's why you don't trust anything the good Maester gets on you." Shuyin mocked while making trades with Seymour.

"Are you two alright?" Yuna asked, hovering toward me before disengaging the Floral Fallal.

I answered her with a nod, but that stunt had me boiling. I rushed right at Seymour and planted the Brotherhood right into his gut. It would've killed him if he was still alive. Sadly, he wasn't and instead of just dying like we all wanted, his body just expanded and froze my Brotherhood with my hand to him. Seymour had another hostage.

"However, with those two nourishing me, I find I am no longer in need of the extra weight. So, I'll return him to you." He grinned.

Shuyin tried getting to me before anything happened, but I was given a lift and a thrust along with lots of the same icy shards I was trapped in earlier. Knowing he couldn't do anything about it, he just dodged me and took Paine and Rikku to head off the enemy in my place. Yuna, on the other hand, was the one that sent them off because her dressphere was all I needed. She simply used her Right Pistil to coat all of me in some White Honey to slow me down and heal me while using a Great Whirl to take out the ice around me. The attack had me thrown for a loop, though, so I knew Yuna wanted me to stay put.

In the end, it was Paine and Shuyin that finished off Cryos Seymour. Actually, Rikku was about to jump in and blast the guy with her machina's Vajra, but Shuyin got in the way and hit the ex-Maester with his Slice & Dice… or rather, his Hit & Run. With him weak, Paine got in her Sword Dance to take down all the mortibodies and finish him off.

Yuna got to her feet and took in a deep breath. She was telling me before about how she gave up all her summoner ways as soon as her pilgrimage was over. After Seymour came back, the idea of doing sendings again crossed her mind a lot. It was crunch time for Yuna.

She slowly walked over to Seymour and spherechanged to White Mage before continuing. The steps started off awkwardly, even Shuyin seemed to notice, but eventually, the sending came under way. However, just as I began to see pyreflies start to come out of the guy, more pyreflies came in from beyond the cloister doors and piled into a cloud. Rikku and Paine blasted and sliced at them, thinning them out little by little, but when they cleared out, Seymour was gone.

From the far end of the room, my own face stared at me, but his eyes were strangely vacant. Looking downward, his mouth opened as words began to echo, "So, it seems I was his partner after all…"

**Author's Note: **I think by his words, you can understand what's going on, eh? Anyway, looks like Seymour's still able to summon his mom, or is he? Now that Macalania, Gagazet, and Luca have all been used up, guess that just leaves Bevelle, eh? You'll have to stay tuned to find out next time on Spira: The Eternal Discord! *fanfare!* ... *crickets* -_-;; Ookay...

I hope whoever reads will kindly leave a review. I really want to know what you all are thinking, but I can't if you don't let me know. Many thanks to new readers habbo and RIDRX for being the first to review since I've returned. Also, theories you may have might just correlate to what I had planned and that's usually a pleasant surprise. I remember back when I was reading one particular author's story who had been somewhat of an instigator in my becoming involved in fanfic writing and I was able to predict a great many of her plot developments and so could make some likewise appreciated suggestions and commentary. Of course, it's also gratifying to know when you've stumped the readers as it shows other skill in writing. Either way, I love to read any comments on my stories. =D


	17. Return of Shadow

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note:** To RidRX: Haha, the Auron-Tidus relationship was something I never really intended on. Actually, Takuma/Shuyin was only meant to be a way for Shuyin to grow and discipline himself, kinda like Huo Yuanjia in Fearless growing while living with the villagers - if you've seen that movie. I already mentioned how Takuma came about. When I had Takuma scold Shuyin, it was mostly to show that Shuyin was still a naive adolescent at that point. He knew the stakes of the Machina War, but it doesn't quite filter in until you realise it on a personal level. That came about thanks to Damusa. Anyway, like I said, it's all up in the air for now so the Takuma/Auron Shuyin/Tidus team-up just may happen.

I'm glad you liked the Seymour. I intend on having a few more Seymour forms as well as a few other surprises in later chapters. Hopefully, it'll be to my readers' liking. Oh, and since you're wondering about Lulu and Wakka, well, this chapter's great for that. =P

"one more thing what was with the last parT? "so it seems i was his partner after all.." thing?? did shuyin said it or another guy?"

^Glad you caught that. It was Shuyin who said the line and you'll find out in this chapter just what he meant.

To the lot of you, my loyal readers, this chapter below features the aftermath of Chapter 15's battle. Wakka and Lulu have been recovered, but remember what became of Lulu back in Chapter 12? Well, all you really knew was that she was rendered unconscious by Seymour's Overdrive. That's only a sprinkle of the consequences of trying to escape.

Furthermore, this chapter will be setting the stage for another upcoming event, which I hope to turn a few heads. I hope you'll enjoy reading this next installment and please, leave a reply when you're done. =(

**Spira: The Eternal Discord  
**

**Chapter 16: Return of Shadow**

Tidus

By this point, I really couldn't be sure about anything anymore. Following the disappearing act Seymour pulled, the bunch of us got Wakka and Lulu back to the Celsius. Wakka was recovering fine, but Lulu… Anyway, from the stuff that went on just after, I guessed we had even more work cut out for us than we thought.

Yuna was in tears over Lulu's bed in the Celsius' med bay. She'd done a scan on the two hostages to make sure of their injuries and, while Wakka got a near clean bill of health, only trouble being a few bumps and bruises, Lulu got hit hard. From what Yuna's spell reported, she sustained serious internal injury, singed bones, and deeply inflamed nerves. I didn't know anything that could've done that, but the evidence built up a strong case against Seymour being the cause. That ex-Maester, as strong as he was, definitely didn't have the capacity and experience to do whatever it was that got Lulu. It was Rikku that suggested what nobody wanted to hear. Even before she said it, Yuna, Paine, and my carbon copy shared the same somber look, very close to the look my other had over Rikku killing Seymour.

Still, I probably should have started this better and explained how we came to that point. It was just after Seymour took off in that weird cloud of pyreflies…

_"Partner? That was you?" I asked, my head totally muddled._

_"Well, one of me at least." Shuyin replied with a heavy sigh, "I didn't realize it'd still be around. After all, you guys got me to play nice ghost and go away. Could that be why I'm back? I mean, it would make sense to have me fix my own mess, right?"_

_"What are you talking about?"_

_"The shadow." Yuna gasped, "But how?"_

_"My original pyreflies. They were locked up after what I did to the Crimson Squad. They were trapped behind that door and I couldn't get to them. That's why I went after the Farplane and turned it into that… monstrosity. Behind that door was, well, the beginning of the nightmare."_

_"And we let it out." Yuna gasped again, "We're the ones that found the spheres. We unlocked that gate and freed what was inside."_

_It was Rikku's turn to share a terrified thought, "You mean, in the Den of Woe, that was… the real shadow?"_

_"Only after I was sent. It was brought to my attention that that part of me was released. It was when I created those apparitions of Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal to torment you. Mostly Paine with that one… which I'm deeply sorry for, even if it means nothing. I guess, reactivating them and leaving them like that let them run wild, grow some twisted version of a consciousness, and continue what I set out to do." Shuyin guessed._

_"Alright, just how many you are there, ya?" Wakka grumbled, limping his way over to us now that Paine finished tending to his wounds._

_"Well, apart from boy wonder and myself, I suppose the only remnant left would have to be that piece of me I left behind in Mushroom Rock." Shuyin answered lowly, gazing off into the distance._

_"Sticking around here isn't helping any. Let's head back to the airship and come up with a plan, right?" Rikku murmured, pulling at my arm._

_"Right. We need to get Lulu some attention." Yuna agreed, nodding to Wakka who was having a real hard time holding back his boiling rage._

So that's where we were. Well, until we started figuring out about Lulu and Rikku got in that we only knew one other person that could've done it. Of course, nobody there was too happy about it even if everybody had it pegged way before the fact. Even so, none of us could really guarantee it. We just didn't have the facts.

"But Shuyin wasn't ever capable of that, right?" Rikku desperately noted.

"Maybe, maybe not. I did a lot while unsent. I never fried anybody like that before, but I never really wanted to cause anybody direct harm like that, either. If I'm right and those pyreflies that saved Seymour really came from the Den of Woe, that Shuyin's doing things without my conscious direction. I really have no idea what that means or what evolutions in ability it might have gained." Shuyin explained.

"Huh, I accused the wrong Shuyin." I mumbled, walking away from them to go look out the HUD of the airship.

The sun was coming into the evening, only about a couple hours away from setting. Taking in a deep breath, I wondered if my own new lease on life was just temporary, left to me until I had to sacrifice myself again for Yuna. If that other Shuyin was capable of doing that to Lulu, there wasn't a chance I'd let him do that to my Yuna. _The dream that can end dreams_, huh? I started to resent that title. It was because I was the fayths' only hope that I went and left my girl like that two years ago. Before my head went blank, I could only think about how Yuna wasn't going to be with me and she'd eventually find some other guy and start a family and that guy wouldn't be me. No, I was going to just disappear. Sure, I did it to save my girl, but the selfish part of me didn't care about that in the end. Shuyin was so clear-cut about how I was a success where he was a failure. I don't think he realized what I lost because of my "success".

"Yunie, I'm sure Lulu'll be fine. She's very strong, remember?" Rikku's words got my attention back to my girl.

Yuna was kneeling beside Lulu's bed, trembling with sobs while Rikku tried her best to get her spirit back up. I'd have gone there immediately, but I didn't know what I could tell her. In a way, I blamed myself for all this. Shuyin, as great as he thought he was, got to Yuna because Yuna was thinking about me, stuck on me. When he struck that first time, I'm sure Yuna only held back because he looked like me and holding back made it easier for Shuyin to hit hard. He managed to break my girl because she was afraid hurting him would hurt her chances of getting me back. Now, that asshole even hurt Lulu, somebody who was like a big sister to Yuna. What could I do about it? Was I ready to lose myself to another stupid thing Spira threw at us? My Zanarkand was so much easier than this mess of a world.

Anyway, while I was lost in my thoughts, Rikku kept consoling Yuna with no results. Wakka was kicking and screaming about Shuyin being a traitor while the guy apologized and kept trying to explain to the guy that there were now three of him. Wakka was hysterical, though. Even Paine had to stick up for the guy just to keep a brawl from happening. It was actually very weird seeing Paine, who was the one that really wanted to tear Shuyin's head off, going to his defense so fiercely. This stuff kept up until we got back to Besaid. Yuna was still in tears, but she'd exhausted herself and Rikku was finding it better suited for her to get her cousin to the cabin below. Wakka left in a flurry, cursing the entire way, Shuyin following close behind with a low growl of his own. The rest of us decided to get some time in the village to sort things out.

Lulu arrived a few minutes after we did with Rikku, Brother, and Buddy. She told us that Yuna cried herself to sleep and she figured it'd be best to leave her alone for a while. Also, Lulu would be better accommodated at home than on an airship bound for the crazies out there. Wakka threw another fit about that, of course.

"I'm comin' with you, then! I ain't gonna let that guy get away with doing that to Lu!" Wakka growled, smashing his blitz ball into his free hand.

"Then, you'd be a fool. You'll play right into their hands!" Shuyin yelled back.

"Oh yea, you would know!"

"Argh! How many times am I going to say this? I'm NOT it! I'm very sorry that it's back and I know I'm the reason it's even around, but that shadow isn't me and I'm going to do everything in my power to stop it."

"Yea? Everything in your power is what got Lu in the condition she's in, ya?!"

"I'm sorry…" Shuyin said, no longer able to look Wakka in his eye, "Like I said, I'm going to do everything I can to stop it. Both of them. I stake my life on our victory."

"No, Shuyin. This has gone on long enough." A new voice interrupted, getting everybody's attention on him, "Wakka, haven't we been through this before? You're a father now. Granted, you're also her husband, but shouldn't you still be careful for the sake of your son? You should know if, Yevon forbid, Lulu doesn't pull through…" which got gasps and retorts from a lot of us, "if she doesn't make it, your son doesn't need to lose his father, too. Don't make Vidina an orphan."

Beclem's words made a lot of sense, but I wasn't sure Wakka was listening. Just like it was two years ago, Wakka wasn't a guy with good foresight. He was the guy that just winged it or tagged along if one of us had a good idea. In this argument, we were heading up a lost cause.

Well, that was before Shuyin came back in the game, "He's right, you know? Talk about how horrible my dark side is, a part of him came to be because Jecht wasn't there for me. I was a 'bastard' because he died and took mom with him. Don't do that to Vidina."

"Vidina, ya? Yea, I get you." Wakka mumbled with a sigh, "Alright alright! I'll stay back and take care of Lu, ya? But get in a good swing at him for me, ya?"

"No problem. I'll get in a good swing… for the lot of you."

With that, Wakka left to see to Lulu and, just as he did, Yuna came in from the distance.

"I'll give it one for every person that suffered because of me. And I'll finish off that ex-Maester, too. This nonsense has gone on long enough." Shuyin added, turning to head back for the airship.

"Shuyin," Yuna abruptly said, "we'll need you for the coming fight. Won't you stay to plan it out with us?"

"It's alright, Yuna. I'm sure you guys've got more than your fill of me. I'm gonna go to the Celsius and see if I can't do more about that sphere we found back in Guadosalam." He noted, not stopping his movement.

When he was gone, Yuna took in a deep breath before continuing, "Nostalgia."

"What?" Paine asked.

"That's what we were doing with Seymour, right? We're down to Bevelle with him. Now, what about Dark Shuyin?"

"Dark Shuyin? Suits him. Well, there's always Mushroom Rock Road. He'd still be at home in the Den of Woe." Rikku muttered, her eyes glancing back over to where Shuyin disappeared to every now and then.

"Yes, but I think that'll be the last place for him, when he's run out of ideas. It's a safe haven for him." Yuna suggested, "Probably Zanarkand, too. After all, even if he wasn't technically born there, some part of him would recognize it, right?"

"We might just peg all the temples then. He's infected them all the same." Paine added, clenching a fist.

"And Macalania." I mentioned, knowing that if it was special to me, it probably had some creepy parallel importance to Shuyin, too.

"Macalania?" Yuna asked me.

So, I clarified, "Yea, I figure Shuyin probably liked it just like me when we were there."

"Come to think about it, Yunie, when you were singing that song in the Thunder Plains, I did see them, Shuyin and Lenne, in a really pretty forest for a split second. I think that might have been Macalania for them." Rikku added.

I knew it. Everything I was was a cheap copy of that guy. I was living in another man's shadow again, but this one literally made me. So much for one-upping my old man. This guy's everything I am and more.

"But you know, he died in Bevelle. It's a sure bet both Seymour and Dark Shuyin will be there, right?" Yuna asked.

"Yea, that makes sense. Bevelle then?" I suggested.

"Bevelle it is." Paine accepted.

Since we were in agreement, it was time to head off again. Under the red glow of a setting sun, we went back to the beach where Shuyin was waiting for us, hand grasping the sphere they found under the Moonflow. Paine just passed him by, Rikku put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and the rest of us waited for him to give us some news.

"This sphere was recorded during a game we had against the Guado Glories just a few months before the war. Yu Yevon's talking to Lenne. After the season ended, Lenne was given notice to start training as a summoner." He said, his eyes darkened and piercing, "I can't make out what's going on because of the wear, but something happened with those two then."

"How does that help us?" I asked him.

"It doesn't." He looked away, "It's actually quite useless now except to piss me off. But it got me thinking about my past. I'm sure you guys figured it out, too. The first place we're going is Bevelle, isn't it?"

"Yes." Yuna answered him.

"Good. It's our best bet. Seymour was affiliated with that city and that's where I died. That cloud of pyreflies, it was taunting me. That's how I knew who it was at the onset. It was accusing me of weakening, not fulfilling my vow. I think that shadow's taking us to Bevelle to show me what started me down the road. It's trying to get me back. It's incomplete without me and it knows it so that's the plan for now."

"For now?" She asked.

"Until it realizes I'm not ever going back. Then… it'll spare no expense to make sure I suffer. We'll want to stop it as soon as possible, hopefully before it understands."

"You'll need further support then." Beclem's voice interrupted us again.

"No, you…" Shuyin was about to object.

"Have nothing to lose and no one to hurt with my death."

"Except Wakka, the Aurochs, and the rest of Besaid who all know you."

"Know of me. I wasn't one to socialize. Besides, you'll need my support much as the support I've already enlisted waiting for us in Bevelle."

"Enlisted?" Yuna wondered.

"The Leblanc Syndicate. They actually jumped at the chance to be on the case."

"That's because you're all fools. This isn't a game. People could die. No, my mistake. People _will_ die, I can almost assure you of that. The shadow's not going to go easily and it'll place any life in danger as long as it thinks it'll hurt me."

"Then, we shouldn't dawdle. The more time we waste hesitating, the more time they have to cause harm." Beclem insisted, moving past Shuyin into the airship, "Coming?"

"You know, you complain about Wakka, but you're just as stubborn a mule." Shuyin grumbled.

"It's a gift. We should be off."

And that was it. With Beclem on board and Leblanc's gang waiting for us in Bevelle, we took off for the New Yevon capitol. What would be there to greet us? What was my new fate going to be? I guess all that was left was to hold on and see.

"Twilight. Twilight in Bevelle." Shuyin mumbled, his words presenting exactly what I was most afraid of.

'Twilight.' I thought, 'Mine."

**Author's Note: **No, Tidy Widy, I wouldn't do that to you… or would I? Kukuku. Anywho, yes, I have brought in Evil Shuyin from the good ol' days of FFX-2. What's he up to? Well, you'll just have to wait and see. But wow, what a power he's got, eh? Microwaved the poor girl... or has he? Heehee, I give away nothing until I have more questions in reviews. =\ Anyway, they're off to Bevelle. Could only mean one thing cuz there's a specific person who should be there waiting. ^_~ … or not. ^o^


	18. Twilight in Bevelle

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note: **To habbo: xD! Oh well, there's always messaging and other methods of contacting me in the end. =P Still, I'd recommend select all and copy before you make the send. The internet can be a cold place, dear.

I've been hearing a few notions about how I refer to Tidus in this fic. If you hadn't guessed it yet, I'm trying my hardest to maintain the nature of Final Fantasy X, which was to never mention Tidus' name and only to refer to him as "him" "you" or "that guy". However, it's quite a simple task when you're playing as him and could only typically be referred to as "you" etc. The hard part comes when you're writing as Shuyin and have to refer to him as something other that Tidus when you're just talking about him. I resorted to using tons of pronouns and adjectives. Here's a quick list on how I've figured it:

Shuyin Other me, My better, The other blitz ace

Rikku The Blitz Ace, Yunie's boy, Yunie's guy, Shuyin's twin

Yuna My love, The dream, "him"

Everybody else would follow one of those schemes. =P I know at a lot of points, this becomes weird and you may not know who I'm talking about, but hopefully I've done a good enough job for you to keep up and hopefully, my telling you this now let's you appreciate it more. x)

Anyway, we're at the next big brawl and where best to have it than right in Bevelle? I hope you all enjoyed Seymour's appearance in Chapter 15 because now you've got another unsent baddie ready to kick up some dirt. This is going to be a simple introduction to the return of Shadow Shuyin, but even so, I tried to make it just as thrilling as what I have planned later. Also, there's going to be a new development at the end, which is going to carry over into later chapters, as well.

Also, there's one more footnote that won't be spoken of for a while, but does have an inkling into future developments so see if you can pick out what I'm talking about. After this chapter, the action really starts to pick up so if you're one of those who have felt this story is going a bit slow, stay tuned.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord  
**

**Chapter 17: Twilight in Bevelle**

Shuyin

"Twilight in Bevelle." I muttered.

It wouldn't be the first time. Perhaps this is why the fates chose to bring me back. Only he can defeat himself, right? It was my fault that those pyreflies of mine were filled with hate and disgust. I lived my life in ridicule of them, the lot of Spira. My existence branded itself in resentment of life, of society. Then, I became a superstar, an ace blitzer, and my bitterness only grew with the rise of fame. I despised Zanarkand's people and that of the world for praising me only once I'd proven my worth to them via sport. My mind clung to the memories of humanity's worst characteristics, their callous and conceited natures. In death, this became vengeance and my breaking point. Bevelle had shown me the proof I felt I warranted since birth, that this world was full of ugliness and despair, that even the most beauteous of creatures, the songbirds and baby sisters, would eventually be broken, betrayed, and abandoned.

"It'll end there, right? When we stop Seymour and your darker side, we'll be finished, right?" Rikku asked of me, her eyes pleading for me to give her some positive answer.

I couldn't give her that answer. I could only look ahead, toward that setting sun that glared at me as if disappointed with how things turned out with this planet. That other part of me, the remnant, remembered Lenne and Kirin. That one knew what happened to them and felt all of it with me for those thousand years. We were so similar that I saw myself in that cloud of pyreflies in Macalania's temple. That's how I knew who had come to the Maester's rescue. Still, there was now a key difference between the shadow and I. I was myself, the star player of the Zanarkand Abes, lover to Lenne, assumed brother to Kirin, whatever it was I needed to believe I was capable of humanity. That thing I left in the Den of Woe, whatever it was, it no longer possessed it. It was the being I became when I lost my heart and soul, when Kirin and Lenne were taken from me. That allowed it to harm Lulu to such an extent; I didn't want to think about what else it was able to do now.

The trip to Bevelle was a dysfunctional parade of sound. Rikku, after becoming frustrated with my inattentiveness, had gone to inquire the same of my twin. Yuna and Paine were conversing with Beclem who had been adamant about joining our fight, even to the point of endangering more lives by assembling Leblanc's pitiful band in Bevelle beforehand. Brother and Buddy, undoubtedly frantic over circumstances, had been arguing over navigation, which point they should take to approach the city. All the while, I could only look ahead. What had I done?

When we landed, Brother had chosen to take a final victory over Buddy in their argument by setting the Celsius down within Bevelle's walls, something the New Yevon guards were all too accommodating. Luckily, seeing Lady Yuna triggered one of their command protocols and they quickly escorted us to the central tower where Praetor Baralai should have been waiting.

Or, at least, that's what those other two would have had us believe. Perhaps it was for his best or they just really wanted a piece of me before their pal had his shot. Either way, instead of being greeted by my most recent host body, the instigator was none other than my longest host and _dearest friend_, Mevyn Nooj himself. Along with him, he had brought the Leader of the Youth League's rival, the Machina Faction head, Gippal.

"You two. Hmm, well, I had been wondering when the hostilities would begin with you." I easily mused, "Where's the third stooge? I thought he'd have been the most ready to jump the gun."

"Baralai is occupied with New Yevon duties outside Bevelle." Nooj stated.

"I'm sure you two have nothing to do with that, eh?"

"Baralai's been through enough you wretch!"

"Sheltering him from the storm will only work for so long, old friend."

"I'm not your friend! You should have never come back. I don't know what you have done to Yuna and the others, but this time, it ends. No amount of casualties will stop us. You must be stopped at all costs!"

Smiling, I lifted my hands and applauded, "Nooj, I commend you for your bravery and heroism. Sadly, it's awfully misdirected. I'm not your enemy, as unbelievable as it may sound."

"I don't think so."

"I know so."

Without another word, Nooj gripped my collar, using his machina arm to wrench mine to my back. Gippal held off the others with his Grinder. The scene looked all too humourous if you weren't one of them. On my end, I felt Nooj's anger through his touch. His hand trembled with the desire to crush my throat and his ragged breath demonstrated the price he was willing to pay, even if there was a part in the back of his mind that was hesitant to perform. My sending had changed him, you see. He was no longer the deathseeker of two years ago. He was no longer the deathseeker of a month ago. There was a want to live about my old friend now, one I found myself treasuring in him, almost like a renewing innocence.

"Nooj, you don't know what you're doing!" Yuna pleaded on my behalf.

"Yea, Gippal. It's not what it looks like!" Rikku added, inserting herself in the conflict.

"Cunno, Cid's girl. Dunno what's going on anymore, but Nooj's got a point and I'm sticking to his plan." Gippal replied, keeping his weapon up high.

"Hey dummy! I fought the guy some, in blitz or in battle. You really think this stuff you're pulling's gonna hold him?" My better noted, equipping himself with the Brotherhood.

Without a second's time to digest his words, my double struck, launching the sword at Nooj and me while running in for a shoulder block on Gippal. With the large weapon, the Al Bhed couldn't stave the assault and took it hard in his middle. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood, charged with Energy Rain landed just a few feet from us, sending its power into the ground beneath us. When it exploded, I pulled out of Nooj's grip on my neck and scissored his head between my legs, twisting to send the rest of him into the uneven ground. Freeing myself from his machina arm and taking possession of the pistol he carried at his side. Directing the barrel at his temple, I motioned for him to stand slowly.

"What are you waiting for? Pull the trigger. We both know you would."

"Look, we don't have time to chat right now. Short version: Seymour's here and we can finish this right now." I stated, eyes never leaving my former host's.

Nooj hesitated, but surprisingly muttered, "I trust that you'll need full access then?"

Nodding, I removed the weapon and turned it around, holding the barrel of it to hand it back to the Mevyn. Taking my attention back to the others, I noticed Rikku tending to an unconscious Gippal. It turned out, some of the shrapnel made by Energy Rain found its way at the guy's head while he was recovering from the shoulder block. It conked him out quite effectively.

"What made you trust him?" Yuna asked, coming up to us.

"Memories." Nooj lowly stated, his gaze on me gentler than before.

"Memories?" Paine interjected, "I would think they'd make you want to kill him even more."

"Not if you compared them instead of replaying them. The Shuyin that forced me to fire at my only friends wasn't the man that had my pistol to my head." He explained, eyes never leaving me for a second.

"You'll have to go over that with me some other time." Paine replied, taking her leave to help tend to Gippal.

"I could be of use in this fight." He then mentioned to me.

I shook my head, "I think Gippal may need you. I can't afford to lose both Rikku and Paine on this one."

He took the hint and nodded, "Yes, I think those two would be of better use. I'll stay here with the guards and look after Gippal. Do you know where Seymour will strike?"

"Not Seymour. I have an idea where the other one might, though."

"The guards won't cause you trouble. Just tell them I'm allowing you passage."

"Thank you, Nooj." Yuna responded for me, "Everyone! We're moving on!"

"Where do you think you're going, loves?" The high-pitched squeak of our "recruits" echoed.

From the distance, the Leblanc Syndicate approached, their leader displaying an annoyed pout. Apparently, they had been waiting for us outside Bevelle's front gate and when the airship basically bypassed them, they were left between a rock and a hard place, that being Leblanc's head.

"Who put that red eye sore in the middle of Bevelle's hall?!" She screamed, "Do you have any idea how hard it was to get around that thing?"

"Hard? We're the ones that had to lift you high enough for you to get to the deck and then we had to crawl under it!" The fat henchman whined.

"Do you want the heel?"

Following his whimper, I decided there was no time left to waste and took off for the temple on my own. Rikku followed close behind, then Yuna, Paine, and my twin. I believe Beclem and the Syndicate were left with Nooj for the time being. It was probably best this way. Those four didn't have combat experience like our band. Even Nooj and Gippal, who were trained to eventually take on Sin, I didn't believe were ready. The Crusaders were a lost cause during the Age of Sin. I felt them, their ridiculous dreams of martyrdom. They weren't ready to face anything except maybe the typical hoodlum, if this Spira's guidelines allowed for such behavior.

It was simple getting to Bahamut's Chamber of the Fayth. The mechanism for the Cloister of Trials had long since been deactivated. However, the trek from the chamber through the labyrinth of Bevelle's Underground proved troublesome over its length. Fiends amassed there out of the swarms of pyreflies the cells and other deathtraps contained. Twists and turns were filled with memories for me, of mine, of the tortured, of the many generations after me. Even if I no longer felt their pain and suffering, the memories of the lifetimes when I did flooded back to the surface. Bevelle was the catalyst for the remnant's being. This place was perfect to preserve its purpose.

Slowly, I tread through the passages leading to Vegnagun's Chamber. Once I got there, I tried to feel for it, but didn't get anything other than the cold that permeated every corner of the structure. In the distance was the platform where Lenne and I parted ways for a millennium. Yuna placed a hand on my shoulder, nodding sympathetically for me to proceed. Taking a deep breath, I moved on, continuing all the way to the end.

"You're my only hope in saving Lenne." I uttered, though this time, I wasn't directing these words to the machina, "Remember when we said these words, Shuyin? Been a while, huh?"

Nothing, just cold, and I couldn't even sense any similarities in the atmosphere. It was slightly unnerving to be in the area where I was both murderer and murdered. The recollections I had of this place haunted me, even if Rikku and the others had gotten me to put it behind me. No matter the conscious effort, my soul recognized its destruction. My heart was already crying over what could have been, the things I could never regain.

"C'mon, you've waited long enough in the shadows. You've felt the grief this world contains. Why would you wish to retain such emotion? Do you not want justice? Do you not desire freedom?" I continued, glancing all over the chamber, but to no avail.

Whatever was going on, the shadow wasn't here. I had underestimated it. I had figured it would come here due to circumstances, but those circumstances would only apply if it still bore the sentiment of its life. That could've been easily lost to it by my reemergence on Spira. If my new form encompassed who I was in life, then this shadow was not me at all. If it couldn't remember being Shuyin, the blitzer of the Zanarkand Abes who fought against Bevelle until the end, it would just be what I became in death, Spira's executioner.

"Shuyin? What's wrong?" Rikku asked, since I had begun staring horrified into Vegnagun's visage over my thoughts.

"Rikku, I think I've made a mistake."

"What do you mean?"

"The shadow you fought. That was still me. I remember it… but…"

"But what?"

"I don't think it does." I gasped, "I think I'm the only one that remembers."

"But what does that mean, Shuyin?" Yuna asked, coming to look at me, sharing a countenance with the Yuna who had feared losing herself to my evil.

"This shadow… it really is a shadow. Our enemy is just the darkness I grew after death. It doesn't care why it came to be, just that it demands Spira's annihilation." I explained, "That's why it isn't here and wouldn't need to be here."

"Then, where should we go?" Yuna asked.

"We'll have to find Seymour instead. I don't really know anything about the shadow after all."

With our spirits low, we began to make our way back to the surface. Along the way, I began to concentrate on my memories of those years spent in agony. What was my ultimate goal? I wanted to eliminate Spira to bring about a Calm that Spira could really take as their Eternal Calm. I had been feeling, seeing, suffering through the same tragedies every living soul on the planet faced. I absorbed them all at once, whenever such an instance occurred. Those events drove me insane and led me to decide that what was best for Spira was its total obliteration. Even so, Kirin and Lenne, the countless stories that ended prematurely, they were surrounding me, reminding me of why I felt the way I did. This thing, it most likely didn't have those thoughts and didn't know why it wanted what it wanted. It was like a lost child, randomly assuming a role in an attempt to seem like a full-fledged being. I'd normally say that was exploitable, but this time, I wasn't sure that was a safe weakness to take advantage of.

"Attention… wings… Attention Gullwings! Paine, come in! Seymour… attacking… Western District… Quick…" Nooj's voice echoed from Paine's com.

"We have to go!" Paine immediately ordered, "NOW!"

We rushed outside and made our way to Bevelle's condemned ruins. Through Yevon and the thousand years of horror, the only piece of Bevelle to maintain its history was that one area. I'll give you one guess as to why. If you need some background, this was the part of the city that the old Bevelle Jowiles Stadium was built. Considering who the secret leader of Yevon was, it didn't surprise me one bit that this was the only chunk of Bevelle that made it through the test of time. Of course, all the technology was totally wiped out, but not even good ol' Mikala could've stopped that.

When we got to the scene, the stadium loomed over us, worn down by age and had a new skylight courtesy of Sin, no doubt. As we got closer, I noticed Seymour hurling Ultimas all over the lower levels. There was a guy leaning against the side of the building, apparently oblivious to the explosions. I left the ex-Maester to the others and made for the guy.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked.

He simply pushed off the wall and came over, "Don't you think you've done enough to him?"

"What? Who?"

He didn't need to answer me. As I got a better look of his face, I saw all I needed to know. It was Kamil, the Areth lookalike. I had killed him in the past. Did that make him an unsent now? At a time like this, I really couldn't deal with…

"He hasn't been the same for a while now."

I turned to the voice and I was suddenly inside the stadium back in the day and the person who'd spoken those words I had heard before appeared before me. Sleek jet-black hair, tanned skin, and a pair of shades flashed across my eyes, which was soon replaced by a Flare. The spell brought me out of the past and through a thin wall of rubble. When I came to, I saw that Anima had been summoned. Unleashing my sword, I dashed in to take it down when something swooped in, tackling me to the ground.

"Hey Shuyin. Didn't expect you to get all nostalgic on me so soon." The remnant mused, its voice even closer a duplicate to mine than even Yuna's guy.

"My age just caught up with me is all. I'm already catching my second wind."

The stage was set. My double was set on gouging Seymour onto the Brotherhood. Yuna was offering backup decked out in her Alchemist dressphere. In the meantime, Rikku and Paine took on Anima, both protected by the heavily armored Dark Knight. Therefore, I was left to deal with the trouble I created for Spira. It was then that our reinforcements arrived. Leblanc's team equipped themselves with Ribbons and came to the aid of Rikku and Paine while Beclem added himself to the fight against Seymour, armed with… a practice rapier.

"Marvelous." I mumbled.

"Eye on the prize, mister." The shadow grinned, slamming its sword down at me.

I quickly dodged to let it strike the ground, then planted my hand to lift up into a double side kick, which I followed by grabbing its neck between my ankles. Tucking my arms, I made a forward tumble to flip it, but it knew and compensated, twisting enough to land crouched on its feet. I immediately came out of the roll with a lunge, but it made a similar lunge while it turned in its crouch and I had to offset my position to bypass it. My weapon slid harmlessly by its head and its skimmed just next to my side. Using its momentum, it pulled forward and grasped my collar with its free hand. Pulling me up, it began swiping at me while I was still mid-air. The shadow's swings came in hard and fast, keeping me stranded off the ground. I waited for an opportunity and, as expected, it made a vertical slash upward. I pressed the flat side of my blade against it, rolling forward to plant both my heels straight into its skull. This was when it chose to make use of what it could do as a pseudo-unsent. I found myself passing through it as pyreflies blinded me from the surrounding.

"Cheap tricks already, eh?" I said into the swarm.

Suddenly, there was a brightness beyond the pyreflies and I strained to see what it was before it came at me, a powerful Flare from Anima. The spell sent me plunging into the ground and the shadow was on me the moment I recovered.

"About that nostalgia…" It jeered, pushing the blade deep into my waist.

I winced at the pain, garbles of ideas flowing through my mind. I saw myself in the Calm Lands, in the Bevelle of my dreams, facing Areth, facing that soldier, seeing the blood-craving grins as the weapon pulled up, causing more damage. Choking out some that had flooded into my throat, I saw myself this time, eyes filled with vile ecstasy as it plucked the weapon out, leaving me to collapse onto the floor.

From the distance, I saw that Anima was defeated again, but Seymour had had his fill. With my better and Yuna regrouping with Rikku and Paine, the remnant easily released a smaller bolt of Force Rain to send dust into the air before pulling the ex-Maester away in a stream of pyreflies. Trying to get back to my feet exasperated my injury and I found myself seeing blurring visions of the city, the blackening day further dimming as I fell to darkness.

** Author's Note: **Fans of my first story know what this is from and yes, this is the same situation so don't worry. I don't plan on killing Shuyin just yet. . . I mean, I wouldn't kill him, right? ^.^;;; *sees the fangirls readying the knives and torture devices* O_O So like, he's still fine and dandy… well, give or take the stitches. Anyway, so evil Shuyin. How'd you like him? =D

Next chapter, we'll be seeing some more development on that, but Shuyin's out of the game for now, right? Future events should prove interesting, wouldn't you say? Like I said earlier, tune in! Ciao for now!


	19. To End Dreams

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note:** Not a single review! And here I thought the last chapter was the action people have been saying I'm lacking in this story! Well, if that didn't do it for you lot, maybe this next chapter will. Shuyin's out for the while, but the rest of them are hitting it hard, with perhaps another recruit. This battle marks the first in what this story will offer in the future and I hope I started it strong.

Last chapter, Shuyin and Tidus figured they were headed into the final battle in Bevelle. Stop Dark Shuyin and Seymour, one two punch, right? Well, they were wrong as Shuyin's not his old sadistic self. He's been distracted as we've seen in many of the chapters. He's unsure of his place and Dark Shuyin seized the opportunity to strike. Now that Shuyin knows his weakness, will he be able to work in a new game plan? Naturally, this will be handled later as Shuyin's a bit worse for wear, but keep that in mind everyone. In the meantime, let's hope Tidus understands that just because he's the key to this mess, it doesn't mean it'll be an easy clean-up.

What's in store for them? Keep reading to find out!

** Spira: The Eternal Discord  
**

**Chapter 18: To End Dreams**

Yuna

After Bevelle, we recovered Shuyin and took him back to Besaid to get him some intensive care. While we were all distracted by Seymour, Shuyin's dark side did something horrible. For some reason, our Shuyin was acting strangely the moment we arrived at the ruins of Old Bevelle. None of us really comprehended how much that affected him until I noticed how the fight was going. I'm sure everyone expected him to have difficulty fighting himself, but when I watched him, there was definitely something wrong. He moved slower or reacted too late. Whatever happened to him at that moment, it allowed his dark self to…

Back on Besaid, my love helped bring Shuyin's unconscious form into the village. Lulu had been moved to the temple to provide her better care with the elders. That's where Shuyin needed to be. Paine and I were escorting, Paine's face expressionless, though I could sense a stern distress in her. The strong stoic warrior bottled up all her emotions for over two years because of that man and resolved to push all her pain onto him. This only to have him come back a reformed hero of sorts, which undoubtedly changed a lot about her decided outlook. I think she would have tried to hate him still, but with the real star player from the real Zanarkand Abes, I don't think she could commit to it. Shuyin's return was letting her regain what she lost two years ago and now his life was in jeopardy.

That was Paine. Then, there was Rikku. My cousin was in pieces. As soon as she reached Shuyin, sobs flooded from her and never stopped. Even at this moment, she was still on the Celsius, inconsolable. Of all of us, she'd gotten the closest to Shuyin, mostly because of her link to Kirin, which I believe was also a way for the former unsent to redeem himself. From the stories my cousin told me, Kirin was everything to him since they were children. Taking that role onto Rikku, he probably wanted to make sure he could do for her what he felt he didn't for his friends in the past. Either way, his stunt had Rikku wrapped up with his life so his injury had become her personal scars.

A few hours later, once Shuyin's condition stabilized, I found my way back to the beach where _he_ was waiting, though not really for me. Judging by how he just stood there, knee deep in Besaid's warm waters, looking further out into the night, he seemed to be troubled by something. Slowly, I made my way to him, hoping that I could be of some use given these circumstances that felt to have little inclusion for my part.

He noticed my presence before I even touched the water, taking a slight sigh before gazing up at the stars to say, "The dream that can end dreams. I guess I've got another job to do."

"We both do. I'm the only one who can eliminate Seymour. Isn't that how it was before?" I tried to console him, praying that the cause of stopping the former Maester allowed me a place in their internal struggle.

"Yuna, Shuyin's weird prophecy from the fayth… I want you to know that if…" But I cut him off right there.

"Seymour's stopped and sent, then we'll defeat that shadow and be rid of all of it."

"Yuna…"

"No, that's how it is and that's all we need to think about." I exclaimed.

At first, he seemed to want to finish what he set out to tell me, about how should this episode take him away from me again, he'd strive to find another way back, even though we both knew the chances this time would be even smaller. Looking into my eyes told him all he needed and he offered a warm smile and a slight nod instead. After taking a breath, I walked over to him and pressed myself onto his chest, hoping to never lose the kindness of his embrace.

"So, first things first, huh? We'll have to deal with Seymour if we're going to have a chance at Dark Shuyin. Where would we go for the guy, though? We've run out of nostalgia for the guy."

"No we haven't." I said, thinking aloud, "We've run out of spots you all knew about, but there's one more place we haven't thought of."

"Where?"

"Bikanel."

"Why there? You told me all that's over there is a dig site ever since…" And then he figured out my meaning, "Home."

"I was held there with Dona and Isaaru when Rikku and Uncle Cid devised that plan to save all summoners." I told him, my mind revisiting those terrible moments, when the guado under Seymour ransacked the Al Bhed's home, killing so many of Rikku and my uncle's loved ones, and did so without even an ounce of remorse.

"And Seymour was the one that ordered the guados to attack. You think he'll think about it, though?"

"As long as that past remains with us, he'll be there." I told him, hugging him closer, "That's all he is now, a lurker stalking what we want to leave behind."

For the rest of the night, we comforted each other, him putting aside the mysterious words of the fayth and me holding off the returning worry in my heart. Both of us knew we were thinking the same thing: Would he be leaving after this like he did last time? Both of us prayed that wouldn't be the case. Both of us wanted to end this story right, put a stop to the sacrifices and spiral of death. Still, both of us understood how much of a pipe dream it was.

The next day, we set out to get things started strong. With Shuyin still in recovery, we were short an offensive player. That's when Paine came in with the notion that we'd be going to Bikanel, garnered post of Gippal of the Machine Faction. Seeing how he was aptly removed from play during the mission to Bevelle, Paine guessed he would be pretty fired up and ready to take down the Shuyin who was truly a threat. Making contact with him was difficult, though. Following Bevelle, he'd gone on a binge and was presently hung-over and not very accommodating to messengers. Five of his group who tried to help us gather him ended up in a heap. Finally, Paine decided we should just skip asking and just leave for Djose, pick him up kicking and screaming… or rather groaning and whining since the screaming would only agitate his condition, then head off for Bikanel.

We had brought Beclem along with Leblanc and her two henchmen, Ormi and Logos since they wanted to help. Nooj remained in Bevelle to oversee the restoration of the ruins, but made a point to enlist his services in the future should require it. Mostly, we all believed he wanted a shot at a Shuyin that had more semblance to the one who possessed him for so long. In any case, apart from Gippal, it seemed our "forces" had been assembled to face the unsent pair.

Leblanc complained to Beclem and Brother about where she and her men had to stay while with us on the Celsius. Despite the fact that the Celsius was only meant for six, technically three considering Shuyin's telling that this airship used to belong to two Al Bhed from his time, Leblanc didn't seem to care that we just didn't have the room for everyone who wanted to come along. Buddy was working with Paine on the "attack pattern" to use in Djose when we were to acquire the Machine Faction's leader.

My love, in the meantime, was back in the cabin with Rikku. My poor cousin, she'd been bawling through the night, unable to make sense of what was happening. I was the same way two years ago when we found out the truth behind the Yevon teachings. In fact, it was actually him and Rikku who'd kept me from straying from my goal, even if their words meant otherwise. I found that I wanted to fight Sin to protect them, these two wonderful people who somehow had the courage to face the unknown or face a threat far too terrible for such a young age. Actually, just about a month ago, I was in the same rut. Having lost him in the end made the Eternal Calm hardly worth it. Then, it had been Rikku that showed me the sphere and pushed me to become a Sphere Hunter. It was Rikku that kept my spirit high when I found out it was really Shuyin on the sphere. And, it was Rikku who saved my life in the end, bravely throwing herself over me to plead for my life. She had no idea what Shuyin could have done. It would have been the simplest thing for what he was then, to ignore her pleas and murder her on the spot. Now that I was finding myself a chance to reciprocate my cousin's selflessness, I realised I couldn't.

Pushing past my troubling thoughts, I waited for Djose and left with Paine to meet the weathered Machine Faction head. Gippal greeted the two of us with a groan and a sloppy wave that ended up pulling his shoulder off the edge of his bed as he gave a longer, louder groan over the act. His quarters were in shambles, sheets and pillows tossed about as if a chocobo had just rampaged across it in frenzy. There were papers strewn, some torn, across the floors and desks, even a couple sheets on the backside of our hung-over friend's head.

"Ladies, a pleasure." He told us with his face buried in his pillow, "To what do I owe the honor?"

"Get up. We need you to help wrangle up a couple of unsent and I'm sure you're going to want a piece of at least the one." Paine immediately stated.

"Oh? Is that right, Dr. P? I thought you guys turned coat on us on that issue."

"You pegged the wrong blondie, blondie."

To that comment, Gippal gave another groan, rubbed his head over his pillow, grunted a few more times, and finally got up, hair like a chocobo's nest. With his eyes barely open, he trudged into the shower and groaned several more times while he was in there.

"I-is he alright?" I asked Paine.

She only smiled and huffed, "Believe me, this is Gippal on a good day. You should see him after he's been through a day of training rounds."

"That was Crimson Squad classified information, Dr. P!" Groaned Gippal.

"Team's long disbanded, private."

Being just a spectator to their amusing conversation just wasn't my style, so I added, "If you don't hurry up, we'll be handling all the action without you. Think your manly points can take that deduction?"

"My my, Yuna, getting the hang of pushing his buttons, I see." Paine mused, eying me with a grin.

"I'm learning from the best."

"You two done yammering 'cause we got a jackass to slam." Gippal interrupted, coming back to us while drying his hair.

Our united team headed off together for the deserts of Bikanel, high hopes for keeping our hard-earned Eternal Calm. When we arrived, I was relieved to know we weren't expected just yet. There was still time to prepare and arrange our formations. After Brother landed, Leblanc, her men, and Beclem immediately took off to mingle, although Leblanc was moreover out to get away from the Celsius. Buddy wanted to do some maintenance on the airship anyway. Paine had gone to reminisce with Gippal, as he called it. With Rikku still trying to keep it together with the help of my love and her brother, I decided the best thing for me to do was follow suite and mingle.

I went over to where Nhadala was normally stationed to get the latest on the local happenings. What I heard was pretty interesting. Apparently, our old resource center, Shinra, was helping with the excavations in order to aid his research. Shinra had been involved with research to put Spira's abundance of pyrefly energy to use and make a future of machina cities possibly. He had already estimated that we'd not live to see it, noting how long such research would have to take. Still, I was an adamant supporter of his endeavor because of how highly my love had spoken of Zanarkand. Though, I now also dreamed of a glowing Spira that never slept because of another star blitzer for the Zanarkand Abes. Ever since that day in the Moonflow, I had a desire to see for myself if the machina cities were really as good as Shuyin made them out to be.

"So, where is he now?" I asked Nhadala.

"Oh, he should be around. He's got a lot of zeal for just a kid."

"Yes, he can be pretty single-minded when he wants something done. Last time, it was the comspheres."

We spoke for a few minutes before our little friend arrived, hopping in for a hug as soon as his goggled eyes recognized me. He explained his reason for helping the excavations was to uncover some workable machina that could harness the energy of the Farplane like he had wanted. He knew that ancient machina from before the time of Sin powered themselves by absorbing that energy, but since we weren't allowed the gift of machina during Yevon's rule, he didn't have enough information to start building on his own.

"Have you had any luck yet?" I asked him.

"No, a lot of stuff out here's just junk, but I did find some stuff Nhadala and the others could use so it's not all bad."

"It sounds like you've put a lot of effort into this."

"I know I can figure the basics out, Yuna, I just know it. All I need is one working generator."

I hugged him close, "Then I wish you good luck."

"Thanks. You know, Rin's been a big help, too. I got a few diggers working with me."

Rin… We found out that Rin had been hiding a lot of potentially bad publicity about his machina. A lot of them were malfunctioning and attacking on their own due to the upgraded synchronization he'd done to better them. His goal was to profit from what Shinra's research would allow, a method to give power to even a city of machina. It was out of this greed that he turned a blind eye to the haphazard augments on machina. I hoped Shinra was doing the right thing by joining him.

"You think you really need them to help you dig?" I asked, hoping he'd agree and discard that "jackass" as Paine called him.

"I'm just a kid."

I smiled weakly, knowing that I had my own desires to see his designs flourish even if the means by which it happened was through dirty dealings. Shinra took off for his bunker shortly after and I was left with Nhadala. I requested that she watch over the little one to make sure Rin didn't try to pull anything, but I knew it would be a long-shot to peg the crafty businessman.

Suddenly, I felt a hand place itself on my shoulder and turned to see that it was Rikku, eyes still a little puffy from the tears, but overall recovered and even smiling happily. Half of me was thrilled by her recovery, but I knew deep inside that she was just doing it again, putting on a brave face to keep everyone's spirits high. Paine and Gippal were also on their way back and Beclem had rounded up the Leblanc Syndicate. My love, on the other hand, was further into the sands, sword held to the side like he was waiting for an attack to come.

Taking the group over to him, I put my hand on his arm and asked, "What is it?"

"Don't you feel it? I think it's coming." He answered, his eyes wandering back and forth across the desert sands.

"Why aren't you the clever little bloodhound." Seymour's voice abruptly rang out.

In the distance, a wave of sand erupted, the winds created in its wake showering around us. Once most of it began to settle, I noticed a creature I thought we had destroyed approaching. It had twin skeletal bodies of enormous size, but the body it was attached to had changed. Rather than the robed sigil of the Angra Mainyu fiend Rikku, Paine and I had fought before, this one had the head and claws of Anima. The chains that had bound Anima were now binding it to the fiend. Atop each of the skeletal bodies of Tawrich and Zarich stood both Seymour and Dark Shuyin, each with an equally smug sneer emblazoned upon their faces.

"So, uh, this Shuyin's okay to slag?" Gippal quickly asked of Paine.

"You really need to ask?"

"Hey, just taking stock, Dr. P." He answered, holding his hands up, "Don't wanna be conked out again for bad behavior."

"Oh, no need to worry about that. We'll just cut to the chase." Shuyin's demons echoed, leaping from his perch.

Gippal easily defended with the Grinder end of his weapon while Paine struck down with her sword. The failed pre-emptive strike allowed us to spherechange into appropriate attire to deal with an Angra Mainyu enemy. I quickly went Dark Knight, while adding the Iron Knuckle to boost its defensive capabilities, and Rikku changed into an Alchemist for support. Seymour was paired off by my love, Beclem, and the Syndicate, leaving the fused fiend-Aeon to us. Using my dressphere, I launched a Darkness wave to stunt its pending attack while Rikku began frantically firing Mega Potions to keep our strength up. Dark Shuyin, in the meantime, had managed a stiff kick to throw Gippal into Paine in order to engage me and give the fiend-Aeon a chance to charge its attack. Angra Mainyu had been harsh enough on its own, but with the power of the Dark Aeon merged with it, I knew we were in for a challenge.

"How do you like my latest work, Yuna?" Shuyin's shadow purred, his voice reminders of my last journey, "We dubbed it the Angra Anima. Fitting, no? Not just one malevolent being, but two. All for you, my dear."

"Thanks, but…" I responded, breaking our clash to cast Black Sky at him, "I'm not impressed."

Unfortunately, the distraction was long enough and Anima began to wail terribly. As if to cast Pain, it's eye began to glow. Then, a sphere of darkness appeared just over the sand and waves of Pain spanned from it in all directions. It had combined the devastating effect of Pain with Demi's bursts of gravity. I was luckily a Dark Knight, impervious to the attack, but the others were fighting hard to dodge its ferocity. Rikku, knowing it'd be too much, immediately fired a Mega Phoenix to nullify the attack as the unsents took advantage. Dark Shuyin assaulted Paine after dispatching Gippal while Seymour returned to his Seymour Natus form, using the Mortibody to cause even more trouble for us with mass Thunder while he cast a few Flares. I found myself too preoccupied with fending off those nuisances to deal with Angra Anima. It gave the fiend-Aeon time to have Tawrich spew Bloody Breath while Zarich matched it by blasting us with the crippling Glimmer of Despair. Again, Dark Knight saved me, but for the rest, Gippal was helplessly blinded and weakened and my love was shrouded in the deepest fog of Tawrich ability.

Paine was the furthest from us and made out just fine, but engaging Shuyin, even if it wasn't the man who'd fought in the Machina War, was a heavy burden for her. Rikku had changed to Psycher by this point, hoping that it's phantasmal powers could serve us against these forces. Before Seymour Natus could cast Break to stop her, she unleashed Time Trip, stopped all three of our enemies in their tracks.

"Nice one, Rikku!" My love commented, finally free to use his Overdrive.

While Blitz Ace rendered a helpless Seymour into submission, I began casting Black Sky after Black Sky and Rikku began her next trick. Once time returned, Rikku ensnared Anima in a Telekinetic bind, stopping it from retaliating while I continued my assault. My love had bested Seymour, but I would need some time to defeat the fiend-Aeon before I could send him. Meanwhile, things were looking grave for Paine, who still had no support. Even frozen in time, Dark Shuyin had managed not to take a tremendous amount of damage. Instead, he had only bided his energy, now ready for a full out Terror of Zanarkand, which he was all too happy to release upon Paine. Before the spined blitz ball could strike her, though, I managed to intercept, staving off a mortal blow, but taking harsh damage to my armor. Meanwhile, Rikku's powers faded on Angra Anima and, freed, it began wailing angrily. Its eye blazed with red rage and it's claws began collecting power to produce its twisted dimension beneath reality. As we all began to sink into it, so too did Zarich and Tawrich. Warped by the malevolence of this plane, the skeletal being roared with horrifying vengeance and bloodlust. The underside of Anima appeared and broke free of its shackles. The vacant eyes glared daggers of poison into each of us, cackling just before the attack would begin.

Both Zarich and Tawrich spewed massive pillars of fire upon us, each one burning fiercer than the last. Anima's underside began literally twisting the plane, tearing apart our wills to fight on. Once the fire squelched and the dimension returned to as normal a state it could muster, all of us had already fallen, helplessly awaiting the end. As I struggled to gaze at our impending doom, A glow sparked and exploded downward, coiled bands of force pulsing through it to dissolve even the toughest layers of armor.

The light brightened until it consumed all of the dimension and we were all swept into its warmth. When I awoke, I found myself back on Bikanel, back among the rough sands of the midday sun. Getting up, I noticed everyone else was just awakening, also, and a person shrouded by the sunlight was hovering over us in the distance.

With pants of fatigue, a male voice emanated from its visible silhouette, "You guys… need to be… a bit more… caref…"

Before he finished, the figure collapsed onto the sands and Rikku was already upon him, shouting for him to wake. When I finally regained my composure, I walked over only to notice that the figure was Shuyin, our Shuyin, and having followed and saved us had caused his wounds to reopen.

"Shuyin…" I murmured at his fallen form.

**Author's Note: **Well, how's that for resilient? Anyway, by this point, I'm hoping everybody knows that I've changed my mind about the AU thing and this is now just a sequel to my other fic. That's why I'm tying up loose ends and bringing in factoids about stuff like Rin and Shinra in this one. If anyone has played X-2 INT/Last Misson, you'll know where I'm going with this, but hopefully it'll still be a surprise. =)

Also, noting what's happened here, I'm hoping you guys are wondering about what's in store. Oh yea, Angra Anima is far from the last of the new bits. Kukuku.


	20. Breaking Point: Epiphany

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note:** Lol, sorry for sounding upset by the no reviews. I just really like knowing what you guys think and I know I'm getting reads. Anyway, take as long as you want, RidRX. =) Tbh, school's about to start again for me, too, so I may be headed out for another hiatus, but I'll make sure to leave on a good note. Actually, this following chapter is a pretty big step into the next part of the story.

Also, I've already known that reviewing is down on the site in recent years so I guess I can't really ask too much, especially being gone for so long. Plus, seems I've got a newbie making a first run at this story's prequel. I hope you enjoy yourself, UrawakaiPisces! Still, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I like hearing what my readers think and particularly, I fancy the wild theories I've heard for my stories, the predictions and investigations. And likewise, this story will be a bit more open to that than my previous work, seeing how we all knew how that would end. What'll happen this time? ;)

In regards to the last chapter, wasn't that Angra Anima fun? As I have said, that's only the first step so there'll be lots more where she came from. For the moment, though, Shuyin's back in the infirmary and Yuna and the rest are a bit overwhelmed. It was hard enough to fend off Seymour alone and it was nearly the last mission for them with Shuyin's shadow. Now those two are together and the shadow is even worse. Is there a way to take them down? They've tried old strategies and failed against the duo, but maybe they overlooked something... or maybe someone.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

** Chapter 19: Breaking Point – Epiphany**

Rikku

It was an awkward bunch of hours while we got Shuyin and Paine back to Besaid to rest. I knew Shuyin was very worried about his remnant, the shadow we faced before, but I didn't think he'd completely ignore his injuries to deal with it. It made me worry even more about the lunkhead. I was the closest person to him now and it was my responsibility to see that he wasn't still beating himself up over the stupid things he did back then. It wasn't his fault that so much had to happen to him and he already explained to me what it had done to his brain. But even though he told me all that and told me he understood why I sided with him, telling him that he shouldn't feel he needed to make amends for everything, I think Shuyin just couldn't let go.

"You're just stuck inside your own muddled head, huh?" I mumbled, leaning over his bed to kiss him lightly on the forehead.

What we were facing, it wasn't just Shuyin's missing pyreflies stuck in the Den of Woe, was it? No, what we were dealing with was the guilt in Shuyin's heart that lingered even after he found peace. All that accepting his death meant back then was that he was ready to leave the loose ends behind and let them be handled by us, the future of Spira. Now that he was given this shot to come back, those pieces he never got back were haunting him. Still, there was more to it than that. Shuyin's guilty conscience was only giving that shadow thing its power and hold over the poor guy. That's why stabbing him like that worked. Damusa, Shuyin told me, died the same day Shuyin got that injury back in the past. Shuyin went through a lot of his old stories with me, but I noticed that a lot of the focus kept going back to incidents where he didn't do right and it cost him someone close to him. The shadow, who was built on grief and despair, had to be sensing it from our Shuyin and needed that to stay strong.

But if that was the case, I wonder what else the shadow could feel. If keeping its strength was to pull hateful emotions to itself, where did it all go? How did that thing use it? If it just converted it into sustainable energy, we were out of luck, but just maybe, things weren't as easy as that. Call it a hunch, but I wanted to look into it anyway. Besides, sitting around here wasn't getting us anywhere and… I didn't like seeing him this way. I didn't like seeing any of them this way. I didn't even like seeing the remaining health ones of our team right now, let alone stay here looking at the three of them fight for their lives. Paine was the best of them, Lulu wasn't doing well, and Shuyin was still struggling with the wound; it seemed to keep bleeding. Anyway, Yunie was already bordering on tears every time we came back from a fight and there wasn't any more I could do this time. I was at the end of my own rope on this one. Everything was just… just…

"Things can't go on like this. Shuyin, Yunie… I know you guys need me right now, but it's time Rikku figure this out." I slowly mumbled, gazing sadly over the big dummy.

Packing a few potions and the other essentials, I set off to get a plan together on my own. For the last two adventures, I was just a cheerleader that nobody took seriously. I knew I was capable of doing more for them, but they needed me to be supportive and help their plans. With all that's happened, those plans were dried up and everybody was completely stuck. Yunie had to go through three of these stupid problems already. It's not fair. It wasn't fair to any of them who were affected the most. The advantage of being somebody no one took seriously was that I also didn't have those meanies hurting me directly.

I headed over to the cabin as soon as I boarded the Celsius. Amusingly, this was the second time I took off with that airship. When I hit the cabin, I decided to double check what I had packed. When you've gotten used to being in a party of three, going solo is risky. I think it's just a personal idea, but it doesn't hurt to be safe. When you're always traveling with others, my idea is that you end up leaning on them, just like I leaned on Yunie's guy in the beginning before we both realized she was the one that needed the most support. When it became Yunie and Paine, that mutual companionship showed up even stronger. I really didn't need to be caught off guard by some stupid fiend and upset them more. After I fully stocked, I took a deep breath and moved onto the bridge.

Piloting the Celsius was really quiet and I found myself worrying if I made a good choice by coming out on my own. To be realistic, I had no idea if there was anything to gain from this move and separating from the main group is what got Lulu and Wakka captured. Kimahri was an easy target because he was all by himself on Gagazet. Now, I was doing the same thing.

"No, Rikku, quit it." I yelled at myself, "Everybody's so confused. We can't stay this way or that'll be exactly what those two meanies want."

Flying the airship the rest of the way, I kept saying things like that over and over because I was scared if I stopped, something bad was going to happen and I would end up hurting Yunie or Shuyin. Leaving the Celsius, I took another deep breath to calm down and left for the Farplane.

The guado watched me as I made my way through Guadosalam. Even though they were perfectly fine now, I couldn't help but shiver at the thought of what Seymour's loyal guado did to Home two years ago, what they were willing to do to us. As much as I wanted to, thinking about what happened then, seeing my friends, seeing Keyakku like that was terrible and lingered in my heart. Brushing past a small crowd along the branch that led to the Farplane gateway, I had a sudden flash of that day in Bevelle, being arrested by Seymour's guado and the Bevelle guards. Taking a few more deep breaths, I moved past the gatekeeper and up the wooden stairs to the entrance bubble. The last time I was here, it was because Shuyin had done something to it and pushed the fayth to violence. My answers might come from someone behind this pyrefly curtain. It was well overdue that we get some solutions to those two.

"Well, it isn't what an Al Bhed normally does, but I'm not here for me. I think I've got enough images of you in my head to get you out." I said to no one.

Pyreflies began drifting toward me, collecting themselves in a bunch in front of me. A full head of blonde hair with fair skin and turquoise eyes on a petite form appeared before me, almost my exact likeness minus the braids and swirled pupils since she wasn't the Al Bhed I was. Walking to her, I thought about what her life was like back in the city that never slept. I wondered about what Shuyin told me about her, the closeness they had between them. What I knew about them was that she was there for Shuyin when his Jecht and his mother died. I think his twin explained that Auron was the one there for him. While those two didn't seem that close, I knew they were there for each other and Shuyin had that in her.

"I know Shuyin takes me for you, but I wonder what the other Shuyin thinks. If I could get between him and Seymour…"

That idea was interrupted, "If your plan failed, a lot of people would be hurt. Maybe you should think this through."

Kirin's image began to move and a glow surrounded her unlike a normal Farplane image. Part of me was hoping for that, but it was still shocking to hear my voice and my face talking back to me while I was figuring things out by just getting my head on straight. I think Kirin understood that because she walked slowly towards me and placed a gentle hand to my cheek, Yunie's touch from two years ago. When I couldn't take it anymore, terrified about Yunie dying from summoning her Final Aeon to fight Sin, she hugged me close and thanked me for my concern. From then on, I knew I just wanted to be there for her and for the rest of them. If they needed a shoulder, that was me. Was that Kirin, too?

"What do you do for Shuyin?" I absentmindedly blurted.

"The same thing you do for your friends. Shuyin really knows how to peg them." She answered.

"It's his gift, I guess. I think it's annoying a lot of the guys, though."

"Sounds about right. He also had a knack for getting under your skin, even when he didn't want to."

"But when doesn't he?" I replied with a shake of my head and a sigh.

When she heard that, Kirin smiled warmly, something I felt she hadn't been able to do in a while. She walked over the flowerbed to look at one of the waterfalls in the distance and took my deep breath. Smiling, I came over to her and put my own hand on her cheek.

"I think I know what your plan is, but be careful about how you do it. This is dangerous and you have people who love you."

"But you see what's happening, don't you? Those two are beating us. So far, it hasn't gotten to the worst it can be, but we're gonna get there." I pleaded.

"I know. Poor Shuyin. He's been through so much and now he has to deal with this, too. All this because we were too naïve." She muttered, moving away from me.

Looking away, I realized that pushing the subject was bringing back the bad memories she also shared with Shuyin. Even worse, Shuyin, to this day, wouldn't talk about what happened to her. All I had known was that Bevelle's war with Zanarkand killed her, but just knowing that Shuyin didn't want to go into detail told me how bad it must have been for them.

"You know, it's just like the war never ended at all. We're still struggling with it, still coping with the outcomes of things. I know Shuyin was hit the hardest of all of us and couldn't bear to move on, but maybe none of us really could." She started to mumble off on her own, her eyes staring at the far cliff.

Turning to her back, I just watched on, not really sure I was in a place to say anything to cheer her up. Yunie, I could deal with. Her boy was even easier to cajole, but I didn't know much about Kirin or the rest of Shuyin's friends to be in a comforting position.

"Actually, you'd be wrong about that, Rikku." She abruptly stated, half-turning toward me, "I think you're the best thing to have happened to him in a long time."

"How do you both know what I'm thinking?"

"It's easier in the Farplane for someone like me. Shuyin, on the other hand, that part of him also creeped me out."

After she said that, she turned away again, kneeling down to touch one of the flowers. I took a couple of steps forward, but then stopped myself. I still had nothing good to say. The best thing to have happened to Shuyin was me? What was I to him besides a way to remember her? I was just the face, wasn't I? That's all I was to anybody, just the little girl that could cheer them up when they were down. Other than that, did I even have a worthwhile purpose?

"That's what I thought, too, but you're at the age where I found my answer." Kirin cooed, "Isn't that why you came here? You're taking the first steps, right?"

"I'm just unsure. Is it the right move? You already have your doubts about me."

"Not doubts, Rikku. I see why Shuyin sees so much of me in you and I know my mistakes in the past. We all had them. I just want you to take care. Don't follow the same sorrowful path we walked."

Kirin was still fiddling around with the flowers as she said that. To me, it seemed like all of them had regrets about the Spira that was. When I was little, my vydran told me about the great and terrible war of one thousand years past, that it was how Sin came about and when our people became a shunned race. I knew that it was something everybody suffered from, but mostly because Sin came in the end. I never really thought about the war itself, about how people living in Zanarkand had to live through it all, watch while their world plunged into chaos. Shuyin helped me understand it a bit, but I only ended up feeling sorry for him without thinking about the hurtful events themselves.

"We were too naïve and it took so much from us. Shuyin tried to protect us all and we let him down by not being careful, not taking the proper precautions. I loved him, but in the end, I was too broken to help him." She continued, plucking the flower and standing up.

I decided to push back the insecurities in my heart because Kirin needed me right now just like Shuyin and Yunie and Lulu and Paine and and… and all of them! Taking one last deep breath, I headed for Kirin and hugged her tightly. At first, she was surprised, but soon after, I felt her hand over mine and clasp. I shook a little, my heart hoping I was being any good. Kirin's reaction helped me a little, placing her other hand over ours and hugging it close.

"Don't blame yourself." I told her, moving around to her front.

Kirin smiled at me weakly, taking the flower she had plucked before and putting it in my hair. Looking downward, she took hold of my hands again and held them weakly. I think she wanted to believe I could do good, but she was scared because of what she already lost and how much that broke Shuyin. She didn't know if she could risk having me, the person Shuyin passed the role onto, to end up the same way. The war back during their time stole everything from them and the scars never had a chance to mend themselves. It was from this that I really knew I couldn't be worried about how much use I would be. I just had to go for it. People were counting on me now, not just looking at me as a cute kid that was good for laughs.

"Don't you worry. Rikku'll think of something." I ended up saying.

Putting her hands on my shoulders, she gave me an easy embrace, then let go to walk off a bit. Heaving a breath, she began looking all around her, though I wasn't really sure what she was trying to find. She smiled and turned back over to me.

"It seems I don't really have a choice, do I? Your friends need you and, if I know you, that means there's no stopping you." She said, tilting her head to the side.

"You'd be right on that. Anyway, don't worry like I said. I'll figure it out. It'll get better, I promise."

"I leave it all in your hands then." She replied, coming back to me and putting a gentle hand on my arm, "Dyga lyna uv ouincamv."

"No troubles." I answered, "Y kuut cumtean hajan cinnahtanc ihdem dra zup ec tuha."

Kirin kissed me lightly on the forehead, "I hope he can forgive me…"

With that said, she disappeared, first blurring into a pool of pyreflies before they all began to scatter. Streams of them flew past me, a lot of them circling around before leaving my side. From them, I could feel Kirin's desires, hear them echoing into my heart as she left. I made my promises and I intended to fulfill them.

_Nobody knows who I really am_

_I never felt this empty before_

_And if I ever need someone to come along_

_Who's gonna comfort me and keep me strong?_

Shuyin and his friends were broken apart by a terrible war between their home of Zanarkand and the cruel city of Bevelle. Through it all, they bore scars of lasting wounds that didn't ever resolve themselves. That was what I needed to hold true for what I planned to work. Chance was on my side even if it looked like it wasn't.

"I'll put things right again, Kirin. Trust in me now. Trust in Rikku." I said to the pyreflies.

_We are all rowing a boat of fate_

_The waves keep on comin' and we can't escape_

_But if we ever get lost on our way_

_The waves would guide you through another day_

Vydran always said that some people like Lord Braska and Yunie seek out their destinies and become heroes for it. Other people end up having something push them into their destinies, powerless to struggle against it. Wave after wave of events hit Shuyin and he couldn't hold them back, couldn't hide from it. All of his friends, actually, none of them could have known that the Machina War was coming. They were just sucked into it and were forced to prove themselves. Guess it was my turn.

_Tookude iki wo shiteru_

_Toumei ni natta mitai_

_Kurayami ni omoeta kedo_

_Mekaku shisarete tadake_

To me, Kirin had the same regrets I think I would eventually get. The way Shuyin talked about her, a lot of her was about how she was there for Shuyin, but there was no notice. She was just the person hidden in the shadows while everybody else took action. She was their cute klutzy companion that went along with whatever they said, the stuff they came up with without any word from her except agreement. Two years ago, the only role I had was first as Yunie's kidnapper to save her from fighting Sin. That wasn't my idea, either; it was vydran's. Then, when I joined up with her pilgrimage, it was his idea, Shuyin's other self. I joined for him because I thought I could help Yunie better that way. After he left us, I told him we'd see him again, but nothing came out of it. They were just my empty words to make me feel better.

Then, the sphere came, but that was Kimahri who found it and thought it'd be something Yunie'd want to see. I was just his messenger. And when Yunie decided to find out what it meant, I was only her younger cousin who wanted to help her along the way.

"I didn't provide anything besides total support, but that only goes so far, doesn't it Kirin?" I mumbled, looking down at the flowerbed, "That's what you're upset with yourself over, isn't it? We both didn't show them that we're capable of better. Shuyin only ended up thinking he needed to protect you. I think they only think that I need protecting since I'm the youngest, but I can do more than agree with them."

Walking out to the edge of the cliff I was standing on, I looked out at the Farplane, hopefully understanding what I needed to do.

_Inori wo sasagete_

_Atarashii hi wo matsu_

_Azayaka ni hikaru umi_

_Sono hate made_

No girl gets to see where life takes her, but Kirin prayed for a new beginning for me. I didn't know what my own future held, but I had the benefit of knowing what mistakes were made in the past. I had a chance to change things for the better and I would.

"You can count on it!" I shouted out to the glen, "You can count on me to make things better! Thank you, Kirin! Don't worry! Shuyin'll be fine this time! We all will!"

I filled my head with courage and marched on out of the Farplane, through the crowds of guado that eyed me strangely as I left. My plan would work, no ifs, no buts. It would work because I knew something Shuyin still didn't get. I knew something that his dark shadowy meanie wanted to hide from us. Maybe it wouldn't stop him directly; I didn't know if it would be that perfect, but I knew I had him pegged and I was going to take advantage.

"Here we come, Shadow. Let's see what you think of my game plan."

**Author's Note:** Many thanks to Rie Fu for her splendid song (also one of the endings to Bleach) _Life is like a Boat_. So, was it what you were thinking? Granted, the action was again at a minimum here, but now they've got a plot to enter into more combat. Will another Angra Anima be waiting for them? And Kirin, what's she talking about?

Alrighty, Rikku's heading up to the front. What'll be the outcome of her plot? Next time on Spira: _Jezebel_. See you then!

**Translations**:

"Dyga lyna uv oincamv." ~ _"Take care of yourself."_

"Y kuut cumtean hajan cinnahtanc ihdem dra zup ec tuha." ~ _"A good soldier never surrenders until the job is done."_


	21. Breaking Point: Jezebel

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **Lol, habbo, I'm not sure where I could place another comeback party, but if I can, you might see your flame there. I will say that it'll be a while getting there, though. Thank you for telling me my chapters in the female perspective are believable. It was a long-standing worry for me that getting accuracy through multiple persons was going to be the downfall of this fiction, but so far, my female readers have had the same reaction you do so that's all well and good. Like you, there were at least two others that told me reading felt like a girl talking to them so, if that's the case, wonderful! Of course, now there's the worry about how I could sound so much like a girl... It's my writing skill! Yes, that's it...

But all jokes aside, thank you for the compliments and hopefully this fiction will proceed toward a Jecht favourable direction.

Last chapter, Rikku set off to find Kirin, the one in Shuyin's past closest to him and closest to her in likeness. Might you be able to figure out her plot? To be honest, even Rikku's not too sure about it, but a few bits more information should settle lingering doubts. There's going to be a few more inclusions that will start the next segment of this story so I hope you all pay attention to them and come up with your hypotheses to leave in review. =) Oh, but naturally with my stories, part one doesn't come to a close smoothly. It won't be anything as dramatic as the eve of war in _Shuyin's Story's Changing The Times_, but it's still not going to ease into the next chapter without making a few ripples. Take a guess as to why. I wonder if you lot can predict the outcome of this one.

** Spira: The Eternal Discord**

** Chapter 20: Breaking Point – Jezebel**

Rikku

When the Celsius landed back in Besaid, the sun was already set. The trip to the Farplane took up a little more time than I wanted and I knew Yunie and the others would be upset, but it couldn't be helped. My conversation with Kirin was better than I ever expected. I saw Kirin on Mt. Gagazet, sure, but I didn't know if that's the Kirin I needed. The Farplane's image was to show me how Kirin might have been, at least a better idea for me to have of her, but I couldn't have expected being able to meet her. I was sure I was ready now and I knew exactly what happened to them back then to be helpful to my plans.

"Rikku!" Yunie scolded, clutching both my shoulders before pulling me into a hug, "Where have you been?!"

"Sorry Yunie, it was just a little muddled over here." I told her, "I needed some time away."

After all, I didn't just come back after talking to Kirin. She let me learn what I needed to get things started, but I had no way to use it just then. I spent the rest of the time flying around, revisiting the spots where our enemies showed up. Most of what I did was just to calm my nerves. The baddies I was thinking to take on were two very creepy people. Still, there was the nostalgia that I required to succeed against them. Actually, that seemed to just be coincidence and their own ploy to catch us. That kind of revelation made me worry, made me wonder if there was anything else behind it or if thinking so only pulled us closer into their clutches. Either way, we had to take the chance since we were losing otherwise.

Yunie kept asking where I went, but getting into any detail would just worry her and she'd find out soon enough anyway. She and her guy had both come to the beach to pick me up, leaving Gippal, Leblanc, and Beclem to keep a watch over our wounded. A short while after Yunie stopped mothering me, Ormi arrived to tell us that Paine and Shuyin were awake. We were all happy to know Paine was okay, but what was shocking was how fast Shuyin had recovered. Last we'd seen, he had had a sword impale him in his gut by the shadow. I knew this turn only made him seem suspicious to everybody else, but I had a hunch it was something better for our side. Together, we headed back to the infirmary to greet them.

When I saw Shuyin up and about, I lost myself and rushed over to hug him, "Shuyin! You're alright!"

"Yea, it was just a glancing blow." He told me, his face back to that stern mope he'd been carrying for a while.

"Glancing?" We all shouted in surprise.

"Yea… I guess it doesn't want me dead. Seems it just wants me to remember, just wants to make sure I don't move on with my life." He replied.

"Is all this just to make you suffer?" Yunie asked him, the kind of voice she used making it clear she was upset to have Shuyin's life mess up hers.

To this Shuyin only gave a sarcastic grin, "Now, that would only account for one of them, wouldn't it? I can't really be sure. I think that shadow needs me, at least the part of me that was involved with it. Of course, I'm also in the dark as to why it'd need me to remember. Somehow, I doubt it's the culprit behind this, but it's probably one of the key players to explain why I'm here."

"Does that mean it remembers?" I asked.

"Again, I'm really not sure, but this wound that's spontaneously healed tells me it doesn't want me dead just yet. Still, for all I know, it's just toying with me like I toyed with you." He said, putting his hand on the fading injury.

Just then, Paine came by to say, "Lulu's in better shape. She's pulling through, but it'll just take some time."

"Paine! Are you okay?" Yunie asked her.

"Nothing Dark Shuyin's head on a platter wouldn't cure." She said, looking to Shuyin who eyed her back.

"You just might get that request, Dr. P." Gippal noted, coming in.

"How so?" Paine and I both wondered.

Dream boy answered for him, "We figure those two might show up in Lake Macalania."

"The lake, huh? Good assumption. That was a place very special to me so it'd make sense the shadow would want to spoil that, too." Shuyin responded.

"Macalania's special to me, too."

I decided, that was as good enough a time as any to get my plan going. "Actually, maybe we should go for Seymour when we fight."

"What are you talking about, Rikku?" Yunie said, expectedly confused.

"Well, they'll both be there, right?"

"Yes, but I don't see why…"

"Then, we have a shot at beating him. So far, we pick a spot based on one of them and just go with that, but let's try it this way." I said.

"But Rikku, what difference…" The blitz ace was about to say.

"Please!"

He tried to persuade me again, but Yunie placed her hand on his arm to stop him. Nodding to me, she let me explain my idea to everybody. I told them about doing some thinking on the situation after we got Shuyin and Paine to the infirmary and thinking about what our unsents' motives were. To my surprise, they listened to me closely and agreed with many of my points. The only one that seemed doubtful was Shuyin himself, but he didn't say anything. I knew he wasn't pleased with the plan, but he was distancing himself. Even so, I moved on and told them all what we should do in Lake Macalania to one-up on them. Once they understood, we set paths to draw them into our stage. The guys supported me much easier than I thought they would and it made me very happy that they did believe in me like I believed in them during our other adventures.

"Looks like Rikku's grown up." The blitz boy said.

"She always was one." Yunie corrected, bringing a smile to my face.

It wasn't any trouble at all getting to Lake Macalania. Beclem and Leblanc's gang stayed back in case Seymour had any ideas about recapturing Wakka and Lulu so we were just the six: Shuyin and his counterpart, us YRP, and Gippal. Gippal was getting through the "kinks" of our plan, working with Paine to sort out everyone's role. Yunie was fidgety so her man was stepping in to keep her confident. No, everything was perfectly fine except the numbing sound of silence glaring at me from the corner of my eye.

"What?" I asked, tired of being stared at like a misbehaving kid.

Shuyin only turned away with a sigh, taking his glare up with the clouds outside, arms crossed and in deep thought. Part of me wanted to go over there and demand he say something, but I didn't think I had the guts to face mean Shuyin just then. I already used up my courage reserves on what I planned for the battle and Shuyin's shadowy side. Kirin warned me about the risks, how dangerous this was even if we all prepared. I was sure Shuyin was having the same thoughts going around in his head, too.

Even if that was the case, so what? What else were we doing besides falling into their traps each time? If Shuyin thought I was going to be the good little girl, he missed those chapters already. This Rikku wanted to do something about the situation herself, not just play cheerleader for him. Anyway, I was the only one who had a chance of having the plan work so there.

Once we landed and unloaded, Shuyin finally decided to speak, "We should rethink this."

"And you choose now to say this because?" Paine immediately questioned of him.

"Because we had to come here anyway and we know they'll be here, but our plan sucks."

"It's a good plan!" I defended, almost ready to punch the guy if Yunie hadn't held me back.

"I don't like it."

"What don't you like? The part where it's probably the only thing that could work?" Paine asked, glaring at Shuyin with a sly grin.

"More like the part where someone stands a high chance of being killed." He easily returned, "And I've been there and back. Not a fun ride."

"It doesn't matter 'cause we're here already, it's the only plan we've got, and well…" Gippal interrupted, trailing off at the end to point at the fact that Seymour and the shadow were just a few feet away, giving us smug looks.

Without warning, _our_ Shuyin launched himself into combat. Taking out his sword, he immediately went for a killing move on Seymour, which was easily blocked by the shadow. The rest of us had no time to initiate the plan before Seymour's multi magic forced us right into it. It wasn't the best way to start us off, but our enemies were here so that was always a good start.

"What's this about a plan, I hear?" The shadow said loudly, his words directed at Shuyin, but meant for all to hear.

While the two Shuyins fought, the rest of us went after the former Maester, though a quick Flare forced the other Shuyin clone to get into that fight, as well. He had originally gone to slash at Seymour, but the spell lit up underneath him and blocking only hurled him over to those two. From what I saw, he did manage a good comeback, striking down with the Spiral Cut Overdrive to break up what looked like a draw between the two. Meanwhile, to follow his Flare, Seymour used Ultima on Paine and Gippal who dodged, but set the stage for the Maester to cast Multi-Firaga right into their path. Paine saved Gippal by going Gun Mage and dowsing the closer flames, but the Firagas had them pinned. Yunie drew her Twin Bees and I quickly changed to Gunner myself so we could double-up on Trigger Happy. The former Maester was prepared for the bullets, though, having cast Barrier and Shield on himself to minimize the damage to pretty much nil.

"Haven't we been down this road before, Yuna?" Seymour cooed, "How did it end last time? Oh yes, with an Aeon surprise."

The ground suddenly rumbled and the small pools of Lake Macalania erupted into gushes of turquoise water. Yunie changed to Dark Knight and I decided to head back to Thief as Paine and Gippal made their way to us.

"So, how does this plan of yours work again?" Gippal shouted while we all kept a watch over the water.

"Don't worry, if I'm right, this latest Anima-fiend is perfect for us." I told him, hoping that I was right.

I really didn't need another Angra Anima knocking us out with an Overdrive. If Seymour's summoning was raising water, I remember only one fiend around this area that could do that and its attacks could be just what we needed to kick my idea in gear. As the water began to calm, the streams pooled together above us, taking the shape of a ball, but with Anima's terrible expression floating among the inside. It was just as I was hoping; Anima got mixed in with a Spherimorph fiend to make this glob of the Aeon. If I knew how Seymour worked, and naturally we all did by now, he'd gloat first before doing any big hurt on us.

"Allow me to introduce the Amorphous Anima." Seymour purred confidently.

With those words said, he got the thing to split into a bunch of globs above us. Anima's face appeared on the bottom of each glob before they hardened and fell. Yunie and Paine were both suited up in Dark Knight so they easily took the hit and cut through. For the rest of us, it was harder, but I was too fast for it and the boy all had their unique way of getting away. After the Pain plus pound move, Seymour had the blobs reform and act as smaller versions of the fiend we fought before, changing its element from time to time to cast different spells on us. While it distracted us, Seymour surrounded himself in the rest of Amorphous Anima, using the Aeon-fiend like a cocoon. The shadow, in the meantime, also took advantage of the bits of Anima messing around by going for Hit & Run. His counterparts easily blocked the strikes, but they had to take their eyes off the Spherimorphs and the globs grabbed them, holding them in place. Yunie and Paine just took the hits, their armor hard enough to absorb the damage, but Gippal ended up being caught by both and was captured, too. Lucky for me, I was forced to run further back to dodge that other attack so the shadow's Hit & Run never made it to me.

"Black Sky?" Paine called out to Yunie.

"Black Sky." And together they called for the rain of fire.

The globs weren't taking enough damage to have the three released, but that was fine. Even the shadow managing to dodge most of the attack was fine. In fact, since dodging it was making him more confident in himself, it was perfect. Once Black Sky finished, two more globs latched onto Yunie and Paine, leaving me the only one free. By then, Anima's main body opened up and Seymour came out with a new form, glowing like the Spherimorph shell he was in. Anima's old body wrapped around him like a robe and he hovered swiftly to my friends.

"Hm, five little ducklings all bundled nice and warm. I've almost collected the lot." He said, looking to me.

The blobs that surrounded each of them began twisting, tightening and hardening on them. He was still gloating so it was time to enter the final step. I kept my distance from them, shrinking to let them believe I was scared and worried about everyone. Seymour held back and just gave a victory grin, leaving the shadow to come and get me. Likewise, the guy took that job happily, doing that stalking thing he used before.

"Now would be a good time to scream, little girl." He snickered.

He would say a few more awful sentences before he got to me. While he was talking, I made sure to look away and slowly let my hair down. The last he'd seen her, she had her hair down. I needed to be as close to the mark as I could. I wanted as much of me to be recognized because this shadow didn't have Shuyin's good heart inside. This one only had memories that I hoped weren't just a tool to be used for his cruel ploys.

"Aw, you're just gonna stand there and hope it'll all go away?" He sneered, letting out a couple more chuckles, "Sorry hunny, going to your happy place can't help you now."

"Don't…" I mumbled.

"Don't? Is that all? Well, at least it's something."

"Don't… Please…" I continued, slowly lifting my head to face him, Please… That's enough."

The shadow eyed me curiously, looking back at Seymour once before turning his attention back to me, ready to add another threatening remark. Before he could, I walked over to him, pressing my hands and chest against his and looking up into his eyes with mine trying their best to recall how they were in our last battle. I tried to look scared, really helped by the fact that I was actually terrified, and fortunate for me, they started to well up with tears, one even managing to overflow and stream down my cheek.

I quickly took advantage and said, "Shuyin, please stop this!", hugging him close.

I could feel his body jerk from my touch, but he straightened up soon after, "Foolish little girl. Do you think I'd fall for it like Shuyin did?"

His sword arm started to lift up to go for the kill, but as I hoped, it was wavering to show that he was doubting his actions. I was getting to him! I just needed one more push. That push came right out of the shadow's own moves. Grabbing me by the neck just as the real Shuyin roared for him to stop, he pushed me back to make way for his sword's strike. Even if it was instinctive, the cringe I made when I lurched back definitely helped. When I opened up my eyes, I could see that the shadow was just about ready to go for the kill, leaving me just enough time to…

"SHUYIN!" I screamed just as the sword swung down, stopping the shadow right when his weapon pressed against my neck.

I was shaken, truly shaken, and my heavy breathing and terrified gaze gave the shadow all I had wanted to show it, what had stopped Shuyin from killing Yunie and me back in the Farplane that day. Kirin was Shuyin's heart, something he got back the moment I put it in danger at that moment. This time was no different and my gamble worked, though it was a really close call. If I had screamed just a second later, I wouldn't have said anything ever again.

The shadow stared at me in shock, hopefully because it was feeling the same thing Shuyin had. He wasn't Shuyin, but he couldn't escape what made him. Shakily, he stumbled towards me, dropping the sword with a loud clang that made me gasp. His eyes never left my face, not even to blink. When he reached me, his hands flew out, grabbing me roughly by the shoulders, but even then, his eyes kept focused.

"No! Kirin… Stop doing this to me!" He growled, pulling me and shaking me like that would make Shuyin's heart go away.

In the distance, a frustrated Seymour called over, "What're you doing? Get yourself together and let's finish this!", letting me know the shadow had pretty much spun us around.

"Shuyin, I hope you can forgive me." I softly said, repeating the words Kirin wanted to have Shuyin hear.

The shadow was hysterical by that point, his grasp of my shoulders starting to hurt. He already couldn't bear to look at me, taking to panting heavily while looking down, trying as hard as he could to recollect himself. It would fail. Shuyin already knew that when I turned my head to check up on them and Seymour. The Maester was on his way to kill me, which was perfect for what I wanted to do. And if everything were to go right, we might even end up with two Sh…

"No… I'm not that weakling. I don't intend to sink into a pathetic heap for some girl! This filth has to be purged and I am the power to crush Spira's despair!" He suddenly growled, grabbing my shoulders so tight, I yelped in pain.

"Get a hold of yourself!" Seymour ordered, now within at least a ten-foot radius.

As his grip grew harder, I thought my shoulders were going to crack; they hurt so much, but he suddenly pushed me away, mouthing a "no". I flung into Seymour who just swiped me away, landing me in a heap off to the side. The hit took me out of it for a bit and all I got for the next few minutes was the shadow shouting a "I won't let anyone stand in my way!" right when I hit the ground followed by someone screaming, more screaming, fighting noises, and then an arm tucking itself under my neck to lift my head up.

"Rikku?" A familiar voice whispered, the arms shaking me a little to wake me up.

As I slowly opened up my eyes, I started seeing yellows and blues, then branches before I realized Shuyin was the one holding me up. His expression was a mix of happy and worried, something I figured I'd just have to get used to. I finally understood why he'd been upset over my defeating Seymour and this plan. It occurred to me after I spoke to Kirin.

_"Shuyin tried to protect us all and we let him down by not being careful, not taking the proper precautions. I loved him, but in the end, I was too broken to help him."_

Kirin was Shuyin's heart. He had an idea of her that didn't let him accept that she was her own person with her own mind and her own flaws. He didn't want me killing any more than he had wanted to see her kill, but they were in a war so he kept shielding himself from those, but he told me about Trista and how Kirin was by then. He couldn't face it that we're both just people and the same for Lenne. But I only screwed up his chances for moving past that with this plan of mine. I thought it would all work out and the shadow would end up on our side just like he did. I didn't think about how close I could have come to having my head lopped off.

Apparently, after Seymour conked me out, the shadow blasted him because he didn't have that Anima cocoon around him anymore. Actually, most of the Amorphing or whatever Anima was in a few puddles elsewhere. By my guess, Shuyin probably attacked it the moment Seymour got hit by the shadow and then came for me when the others were freed. The Maester still had his updated form, but without Anima, most of his new abilities were gone. Instead, what he had looked to me like combination elements, like the Triple Foul Yunie's Aeons could use during the pilgrimage.

"You think you're up for round two?" Shuyin asked me plainly.

"Why, you think we…" I was about to say.

Very abruptly, Shuyin tossed me up, spinning me as he did so I could see what was happening. The shadow gathered himself and went to attack Shuyin. Taking out my daggers, I used my air to my advantage, going for a stab on him like I had with Seymour. Instead, after a deflection on Shuyin's sword, he hopped on it and headed for me. I quickly crossed my daggers to block his lunge, catching the tip of the weapon and balancing myself on it. Meanwhile, Shuyin managed to grab the leg of his counterpart, pulling us both down to the ground before offering a shoulder for me to somersault onto and making sharp jabs with his sword at our opponent.

While we were busy with that, Seymour's Triple Fouls were slowing as his magic began to run out. Yunie and Paine had him pinned with Black Sky, forcing him to waste more magic on protective and Cure spells. And while they were doing that, the boys were picking up the physical offense, Gippal with Grinder to take off small bits of the Spherimorph armor and the Blitz Ace poking the weaker points to chip away some more.

"Enough of this!" Seymour growled, "This Seymour Stellus deems it time to unveil my true power."

The armor melted around him and collected back into a ball before brightening with light. Inside, several colors swirled around the Maester, revolving faster and faster until they all blurred together.

"Rakuhouha!" He suddenly burst out, shattering the outer shell of the Spherimorph armor.

The contents that had been trapped inside erupted in spikes of multi-elemental power, scorching the entire area. Shuyin and I were far enough away to avoid it, our attention mainly on Shuyin's dark side. For the others, they took to hiding behind Yunie and Paine, but even then I could see that it wouldn't be pretty. As the tremendous energy surged, the Dark Knight armor began to melt and blow away from them. By the time the raku whatever finished, both of them had to switch out dresspheres. Yunie took to White Mage while Paine went back to her Warrior form. Turning my attention back to the center of the blast, I saw that Seymour was in rough shape. That attack was his last ditch effort to buy time until the shadow could pyrefly them both to safety, but we could help mess up those plans.

"You two, I'll filet later. Right now…" The shadow started to say.

Quickly, I cartwheeled in and took my heel to his chin. Following me, Shuyin put him into a lock, holding him still so I could flip forward, grab him neck with my ankles, and flip him even further away from helping Seymour. Before we could react, though, a streak of yellow blew past us and began cutting away at him, too.

"Hey, head back over. Yuna's ready and you two look like you could use a break." The Blitz Ace said.

"Alrighty!" I consented, taking Shuyin to go surround Seymour.

When we got there, Yunie was already in the middle of sending him and he was helpless to resist. There was a howl in the background, courtesy of an Energy Rain, and then our mission was complete. While my plan didn't go exactly the way I hoped it would, we accomplished what we set out to do that day. We sent Seymour back home.

**Author's Note: **And at long last, we're at the end of Seymour. Finally, too, since I feel mages take away from the fight. He was boring even in the game. I kept rolling my eyes each time I had to fight him because, while I had my trouble with the first fight, the rest were lame. =\ Well, that's to me anyway. He's not much of a fast-paced instinctive reaction kind of boss, is he? I mean, I'd rather fight a Tonberry than that guy. Note, I don't mean to offend any Seymour fans out there; he just wasn't for me. =P Anyway, now we've just got the one pissed off and possibly confused unsent around to deal with. What will happen? Tune in next time for Chapter 21: _Partial Victory._ See ya then!


	22. Partial Victory

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note:** Well, here we are at the next bend, eh? Now that at least half the problem is solved, the gang has been struck with the reappearance of hope. However, that's not to say they're anywhere near done. Of the lot, it would seem only the two who've had to endure this entire span of events really comprehend how long they have left to go. Through the wars, the monsters, sins of men, and unyielding malevolence, they see through the glimmer and minor successes and know the end is hardly in sight. Still, they must carry on.

Before we get to that... habbo: I'm glad you felt the same way and hopefully the rest of the flock did, as well. Not to put a damper on spellcasting opponents, but writing fighting scenes with him was droll for me. You'll notice I didn't get into too many Jurama fights in the former story.

On Jecht, as I said, we'll see. For the moment, I don't know how I'd fit him in or to what capacity he'd serve. With the way I portrayed the Jecht/Shuyin relationship, our boy has made his peace, but there always will linger that resentment of him, which is now a part of the shadow. As for Tidus, that was solved throughout X, something that I tried to parallel with my Jecht/Shuyin. For me, at the present moment, Jecht's return would only burden the plot at hand, much as a returning Auron and Takuma, though I also told RidRX that it is a possibility. To be absolutely candid, this story, unlike my first, still has quite a ways to go and I no longer have the small segment of five chapters to coincide with an existing plot and simply expand on it. Therefore, even as I say I haven't found a reason to bring in elements like Jecht, I'm much more free to consider them.

In regards to opposite gender portrayal in writing, I'm sure every author comes across it at somepoint so it's more or less an experience issue. It'd be fun to delve into that topic, though. So, for any of my readers who write, what experiences have you had portraying a character of the opposite sex?

And last before we begin, (I promise) I've been in communication with another writer on updating issues, habbo. It seems to fall into time quite frequently. For me, if I ever get this story finished, I played with the thought of releasing several lighter projects in unison. Of course, then the time aspect far greatens, but so does the elapse. Assignments and all take time, but if you're fresh on one of several stories, writing a continuation might not take as long as forcing yourself to come up with the one. =P

Wow, long rant this time. =o Without further ado, I present the next chapter!

** Spira: The Eternal Discord**

** Chapter 21: Partial Victory**

Yuna

I was still wearing my White Mage's robe when we arrived back in Besaid. Throughout the ride back, everyone was celebrating like before, laughing sincerely again like the troubles were over. The Eternal Calm was going to live on after all. But it was a lie. I didn't know how I could ever believe that the Eternal Calm would come, that my life could finally travel a normal road. This time, I couldn't be fooled. This time, while they cheered, I only sat and gazed at my old summoner's staff. It wasn't even over yet. While Seymour was safely sent back to the Farplane, there was Shuyin's dark side, the power that nearly killed Lulu, and the on-going mystery of why Shuyin and all this were here.

Of the rest of them, I surprisingly could only find a kindred spirit in Shuyin himself. He'd left the celebration early and headed back for the top. Most of them had believed he just didn't know how to be amongst a group anymore, having been trapped inside a cave alone for so long. I knew better, though. Shuyin's mind was in unrest like mine. He had come to a point where he only wanted to rest, but no one was allowing him to. He spent his life trying to protect his loved ones and hundreds of dead lifetimes agonizing over how to remedy his mistakes. We reunited his one love with him to give him the option of laying down his plight, release him from his self-imposed obligation to save Spira, but something pulled him out again, trapping him in another lonesome life without Lenne. I knew this because I was the same. Two years ago, I was ready to die for Spira's peace, praying my sacrifice would be the end of Spira's pain. I was victorious, but the sacrifice was even worse than I had imagined; I lost the most important person to me. Then, I was given the chance to save him and bring him back to me only to fall into another difficult quest to save this world. I thought that would be the end and I relished in the thought of having him back, having the struggles I've had to undergo fade into the past, but just like Shuyin, I feel as though something's constantly pulling me back in and it's tiring.

Half-way through the "Excellent!"s and "One down, one more to go"s, I had had enough and chose to find the one person that shared my doubts. Getting myself to the lift proved difficult as everybody wanted to have me join them. Rikku proved to be the worst of the bunch, humbled by all the praise she was getting for her plan, but excited about how it had worked.

"Yes, I always knew you wanted to do more, Rikku. You've just never been able to spread your wings with us around like overprotective parents, right?" I said with a smile, "I'm proud of you."

"Aw, I only did it because we weren't getting anywhere the way we were going." She told me, blushing slightly, "It was a real close call, though. I'm sorry… if I worried you."

I was surprised by her last comment; I hadn't even been aware of the circumstances since I was locked inside the Amorphous Anima at the time. I had only known that Shuyin decapitated the Anima portion of Seymour Stellus, which defeated it and freed us. Then, it was a matter of defeating Seymour and sending him. I wasn't even in contact with Rikku for the latter portion of the battle.

"That's alright, Rikku. You're your own person and we should respect your decisions. You've always been the most grown-up of all of us, even if you didn't outright show it. My pilgrimage forced you to mature so quickly; I'm sorry to you." I told her, moving on to the lift and selecting the Deck level.

The moment the doors opened, Shuyin's voice echoed in my ears, "It's still out there. They're all having fun down there, but it's still out there. We're not finished yet."

I offered his back a sympathetic smile, "We will be, though. They are celebrating that."

"It's wrong." He quickly replied, "Now that it's free, it's more of a nuisance than it ever could have been."

"But Rikku can stop him, right?"

Shuyin only lowered his head, "Rikku…"

"You worry about her safety, don't you?"

"It's not that. I don't want her getting too involved. This war's filled with taint. If the shadow realizes Rikku's semblance to Kirin… I don't want Rikku to go through that."

"I don't understand." Rikku had control over Dark Shuyin, not the other way around.

"You weren't able to see it after Seymour froze us all in those spheres." He explained, "The shadow has overcome anything that ever hinted at me within itself. We're completely separate beings now."

"What do you mean? Rikku's plan worked, though."

"Yea, but not how we hoped. The shadow began succumbing to my heart when Rikku triggered it, but it didn't have enough traces of me left. It disregarded it, fed directly from the vengeful lust I developed as an unsent, and nearly slew Rikku if not for Seymour. It was a lucky break that we shouldn't afford ourselves ever again. We have to be prepared next time. That's why I objected to the plan. We had no back-up, no secondary route. In blitzball and in war, the first thing you do after coming up with an offensive tactic is to develop alternate tactics based on the preceding guidelines to better ensure success with as little glitches as possible." He grumbled, turning to face me, "Her plan was reckless like I was back in the Machina War."

"What happened to you back then? When Lenne's spirit resided in me through the Songstress Dressphere, I felt her love for you and I could at least sense the kind of person you were. The two of you were so alike that I had even mistaken her feelings as my own, but when I finally met you, you weren't the same at all. You were so cold, cold like you remain even now with your life restored."

"Well, that would be accounted by the fact that my life hasn't been restored. Not at all. It's a lie. I'm slowly coming to terms with that. You should, too. As for being like your guy, I told Larea this before. I was never him. I could never be, but I could lie. I could fool everyone with a fake smile, a shallow external personality, masking my true person inside, buried from everyone, maybe even Lenne."

"You couldn't have hidden from your true love, could you?" I asked, urging him to speak to me, since I didn't know anyone else who could match my current state of mind.

He let out a small huff, "You're right. You guys are always right about me… Then again, isn't that what a thousand words were meant to tell me? She knew. She knew my every move and she knew them better than I did. It led her to Bevelle that morning. It led her to her death… and she willingly came for me."

"That's love, Shuyin. I was willing to lay down my life just the same two years ago."

"Yea, only you have altruistic goals in mind. What did she have to motivate her? Stop a murderer from murdering? It was a useless sacrifice; they all are. I planned to destroy myself only as a last resort. Yu Yevon was supposed to have been my back-up plan, but that fell through so I was forced to make that decision to sacrifice my life for all of theirs; eventually just for Lenne. She was ready to give it up for Zanarkand; she was so adamant about it. I couldn't let her throw her life away like that."

"So you plotted to become the worst mass murderer of Spira." I asked of him, making sure to emphasize the callousness of his intended actions.

"Wouldn't be the first time the world's hated me." He easily shrugged.

"What do you mean by that?"

What had happened to him? Did one war change him into this black shell of a human being? Lenne's feelings weren't anything but wholeheartedly candid, but did she love this man standing before me? I couldn't accept it. Shuyin was acting nearly as horribly as those we would hope to stop, yet someone who drew enough of a twin star with me fell for him?

"Yuna, I wasn't always the Star of the Zanarkand Abes Blitzball Team. I wasn't always in the limelight. In fact, I wasn't ever a well-adored man of the hour." He told me.

"But you had to have been! He was." I quickly retorted.

"That was him. I was him in the public eye. That's why they brought him back and not me. That's why my father got a free ride back to the living, while I was stuck in a damp dark cave building my own list of rich kid issues."

"What are you talking about?"

"My childhood. My mother and Jecht had a child that they named Shuyin. I turned out to be a 'weirdo' so the other kids didn't like me. That only got worse the older I got, especially when the 'weirdo' turned into an orphaned 'weirdo'. Then, things escalated, escalated all the way to puberty. I'm sure you can imagine what that'd be like, especially for a guy. Although, to be honest, I did learn a thing or two about fighting during those years. I began to figure out weak points and where my strikes could really drive the message through." He rambled, sauntering about the Celsius deck.

"That's awful." Was the only thing I could say.

He simply gave a chuckle before saying, "Isn't that a fact. Well, luckily I always had Kirin nearby to whine and moan to. Of course, that didn't save me." He lowered his head and stopped in his step. "She couldn't save me from what I was about to set in motion. That, Yuna, that's why I've changed. It's because I haven't really changed, you see. I've always been this way, just better hidden or eased off by the support of those I cared about. But they've all been dead and buried for generations. I've nothing left and so, I've no reason left to hide."

"You have us." I awkwardly suggested, slowly inching my way to him.

"No, I don't… But thanks." He replied with a sigh, "So, what brought you up here anyway? I'm not used to your company. Don't tell me you're being a kindred spirit to me. Does the saintly Lady Yuna have any inkling of a blemish to match herself to me?"

Following his confident statement, I took myself right to his side, "I can match you parent for parent and ill-fated destiny for ill-fated destiny."

As to be expected, Shuyin only returned my words with a misunderstanding glance, raising an eyebrow. The next move, however, was unpredicted for me. Shuyin closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Suddenly, he began voicing a statement, which had passed through my ears long ago, a phrase I thought never to hear again. They were the words of my father the day he left on his pilgrimage. How did Shuyin know of them?

"I was mistaken then." He continued, having opened his eyes following the heart-ailing reenactment, "I almost forgot about your loss. I'm sorry, Yuna. It must have been difficult for you."

"I was lucky to have Kimahri come for me. Still, leaving Bevelle once the last Calm occurred broke my heart. I never believed my father would leave me like he did. I remember crying for weeks once I came to Besaid."

"But you found a new home in Lulu and Wakka, huh?"

"Yes, and Chappu. They were so kind to me, treating me like their youngest sister, but even so, I was never the same. I could never forget him, you know?" I said, wiping the stray tear from my eye, "After my mother died, he only had me and I only had him."

"And then he was taken from you. You tried your hardest to think that it was a dream, a lie, something misleading, something meant to hurt you, that you could wake up one day and she'd be right there… but then you realize that that thought was the dream. That thought was the lie. She left and you could never get her back. People try to soothe your pain. People try to tell you it was how it was meant to be, that love is a power that cannot be overcome, but those words only damage you further and you become as black as coal, burning just as fierce." He began to growl, piercing through the skies around us with a cold gaze.

"I think I chose to accept their words. It was more comforting to know my father died to protect me and to save Spira than believing he'd left me."

His harsh expression quickly lifted as he turned to me, his blue eyes, menacing just seconds ago, now resumed their pacific glow. "I wish I had your gentleness. I think that's what made me fall in love with Lenne. I needed that tenderness, that part of a person's heart that could forgive and move on."

"Why couldn't you?" I asked him.

"Genesis."

"Genesis?"

"I told you. My early life wasn't much smoother. My peers hated me, be it jealousy that I was the son of a champion or abhorrence since my behavior didn't fit the norm. I never made many friends as Shuyin. I only had friends at face-value as Tidus. By then, I had conviction that I was meant to be alone, that love was only a curse that took your loved ones from you. I only had Kirin to keep me from truly accepting that Spira had nothing but selfish abandonment to present. She was my heart, both when my parents were alive and after they died." He explained, walking to the far end of the airship, "I think that's how I lost my chance at gentleness. You know, Lenne's parents were taken from her, as well. Yet she was able to develop such kindness and that power, her music that can possess you at a whim."

"I always had Lulu, Wakka, Chappu, and Kimahri with me. Before them, I was taught to love others and find the best Spira had to offer. Sir Jecht, Sir Auron, and my father were the closest of friends and I think I drew upon that when I met Lulu, Wakka, and Chappu."

"Sounds nice." He muttered, turned away again.

It was probably unfair to him that I was talking about how I grew up with love all around while he obviously built a long history of hatred and bitterness. It made it more understandable how he could have strayed so far from my love. He had become another person entirely to present himself to the Spira that hated his true self. He became a carefree, joyful person, but only as an insult to Spira, giving them what he figured they wanted. Meanwhile, the fact that people did end up favoring him over his true person only progressed his hatred of them. I think, in a way, my love cost Shuyin his chance at having my love's wonderful personality, the character that made me fall in love with him. Spira had become a terrible and smothering place since their time in Zanarkand. Sin made life full of despair and grief so having my love suddenly appear in Besaid two years ago was a blessing greater than anything I'd ever experienced. Then, to add to it, it was due to him, due to having him with me that we finally eliminated that Spira forever. The Eternal Calm was a gift nothing could ever surpass.

But it was coming back again. All that I had fought so hard to create was being torn down a third time. I didn't want to keep fighting. I couldn't keep pushing it away any longer. That kindness Shuyin believes me to have; I think I'm losing it to this malicious reality.

Suddenly, I felt a tender hand place itself on my shoulder, caressing my skin down to my elbow. It was Shuyin's hand. As I trailed my eyes up to his, I saw what seemed to be solemn remorse in them as he said, "Things will get better, Yuna."

I was taken aback at first, wondering how he could have known what I was thinking to match my thoughts with his words so exactly, but it took only moments for me to leave those ideas behind and take the comfort he was providing me. Just as I had felt when Lulu hugged me close and said similar words, I felt the warmth Shuyin thought he didn't have, tears freeing itself from my eyes.

"Hey, Yunie. What are you two doing away from the party?" Rikku's voice yelped from behind me.

I quickly wiped away the tears, gave Shuyin a look to have him examine my complexion before I let her see and, with his slight nod, I turned to give a happy smile, sincere since I felt elated by what Shuyin had done for me.

The voice that returned my expression was one that matched Shuyin's, approaching me to place two loving hands on both of my shoulders, "Hey, I missed you down there."

"I missed you, too, but I just needed to get some air. We had a rough few days and I just wanted to get in a few cleansing breaths." I told him, knowing that what I got was much more fulfilling.

"That's cool. Shuyin seemed to need some of that, too, not that I blame the guy. Anyway, you two should come join the party."

"That's alright. You guys go on ahead. I prefer the scenery."

"Scenery? It's just clouds."

"And the sun. And the gorgeous shades of light bathing those clouds. I think I'll stick around up here. You three enjoy yourselves." Shuyin said.

"Make that 'you two'. I wanted to have a chat with you." Rikku noted, skipped over to Shuyin and pulling him further out on the deck.

Smiling, I left with my love, my heart echoing my thoughts, 'Shuyin, you're more than you think you are. Kirin and Lenne might be gone, but maybe Rikku can rekindle the benevolence in your soul.'

**Author's Note: **Well, wasn't that nice? Yuna and Shuyin had a touching moment. But she also learned something important about the former villain, didn't she? Her ally against the shadow is none other than the original darkness. Will this play a role in the future? Find out next time, tots. ;)

... speaking of which, that may now be a while away. I've found less and less time to sit down and write as of late and likewise, my creative muse seems to have jumped the next plane to Bermuda. If anyone spots it anywhere in the area, please track it down, poke it a few times, and return it to me once it stops being fickle.

Luckily, I was able to shake loose the first part of the story before it slipped loose, though. When I've gotten it back, I'll be sure to have the next part out as soon as I can. Until then!


	23. Shadow's Fall

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note:** Aw, only two reviews this time? Well, that's okay. I see the view ticks still pulling higher so I know you are still reading this, my lovelies. Well, thanks to habbo's bombtastic solution, my muse has now crawled itself back to me and we may continue. Don't worry Haruka! I wouldn't keep you waiting too long. *notices the last update was nearly a year ago* ... =D

We last left off with Shuyin finally opening up about his past *depressing life, I know* and drawing the parallel from Yuna, which may play a part in the future. However, right now, we have the matter of Shuyin's personality to deal with. You could tell from before that he's not even considering his new life anymore, which is a problem. Suicidal tendencies aside, he's distancing himself from everyone again as the supposed final chapter looms, but could this only play into Dark Shuyin's plans?

** Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 22: Shadow's Fall**

Shuyin

Yesterday's conversation with Yuna felt nice. I stopped telling about myself the moment my parents died. Only Kirin knew after that. It wasn't until Lenne that I started back up again, letting her know exactly who I was and where I had come from. And then they were both taken from me. For the next thousand years, I became a recluse again, further pushed by torture inside that cave. It had been so long since I even reviewed the course of my life myself, let alone talk about it with anyone else. Seymour's final defeat allowed everyone to gain some peace of mind and I suppose, it allotted me some comfort, as well.

Our one remaining enemy was still out there and he was everything I wanted to forget I ever was. Yuna has spent her nineteen years praying for an end to the madness and it hadn't been answered. It was just like my own life, nineteen years abominated by peers, downplayed by my father, haunted by ill deeds, and through it all, nothing ever solved itself. There were moments of joy, tiny specks of hope that maintained my humanity and compassion, but eventually, they were swatted like flies, too. That was my life. My failures forced the tragedy to continue on and plague these future generations. It needed to stop once and for all. Once my dark half was obliterated, Yuna and the rest could live in peace and Spira could progress undaunted.

_"You're not alone."_

"Kirin?!" I gasped, standing up into the morning sun, "No, just you again, huh?"

Yesterday, after Yuna left with my better half, Rikku had opted to stay and talk to me about the victory over Seymour. At first, I thought it was just to celebrate, but I underestimated her again. Instead, she wanted to go over a few things. One was me.

_"Is your head together?" Her typical cheerful demeanor abruptly turned the moment the two left us._

_"Of course it is. I know our objectives and I know how to accomplish…"_

_"That's not what I mean, Shuyin. We can stop Dark you, but we're not… I'm not going to let you do whatever it takes and get yourself hurt again."_

_"Rikku… You know I'm not meant to stay, right? Sure, it's been a month and I'll admit to hoping I had another shot at living a full life, but that's just not fair and it's not going to happen."_

_"That's what I mean. You saw what happened. Even if my plan didn't work the way I really wanted, we already see that you're the stronger one. The shadow's hung up over the past and still reliving the entire episode. It's you who is truly free of it if you just let yourself be."_

_"I don't think it's really my choice, Rikku. The shadow's just another nuisance, sure, but there's a reason I was brought back from the dead and I'm not going to kid myself that it was done on my behalf anymore."_

_To that, she walked over to put a hand on my shoulder, "This is what I'm talking about. You're still forcing yourself back there. It's not about what brought you back or why. You're doing it to yourself. We'll stop your evil half. Then it'll be over."_

If only it could be that simple, Rikku. Walking further along the deck, I took in the sunrise with a deep breath and revealed the sphere I was keeping with me. It was the same one I uncovered in Old Guadosalam when this whole event began. I had been fiddling with it on my own time to see if I could hear the entire conversation it held, but it hadn't been successful. Too much wear and tear on it made it impossible to recover the original message, which irritated me.

"What were you two talking about?" I asked aloud.

Replaying the sphere, I stubbornly kept reading into the motions. What was Yu Yevon doing with Lenne? Where was she? Was I back just to put an end to the scars of the past? If that was the case, nobody else was necessary, were they? I was brought back to fix the problem I let happen. Still… the sphere still bothered me. What were they saying?

"I'll get to the bottom of this." I told the sphere, clutching it tightly.

Suddenly, a loud siren sounded and Brother came on the speaker to tell me they had received an alert. I rushed back down and hurried to the computer where Gippal had answered the call.

"He's at Djose." He uttered, taking a second to notice my arrival, "Your friend's at Djose."

"Gippal, I'm sure…" Rikku tried to say.

"We have to go right now."

"Look, we are, but you have to calm…" My better half began to tell him.

"No, those guys down there are my responsibility! If anything happens to them, it's on me."

At this point, I decided to speak up, "No, whatever the thing does, it's on me, no one else. I get it, you're concerned about your people in the Machine Faction. We'll be there as fast as we can, but this wasn't expected. He's obviously getting desperate and that makes him more dangerous. He knows he's out of options. I'm sorry, but there's going to be casualties."

Gippal didn't want to hear that, though. He quickly turned and lifted me by the collar, his eyes glaring to show that he didn't really want excuses for the deaths we knew we'd find. Looking back at him, I offered him my calm and stern gaze in order to pacify him. I wasn't the enemy despite how many of them felt that way.

"Let's just get to Djose."

Brother and Buddy accelerated the Celsius to the out of the way temple, but the alert was already the first sign that we'd be too late. If we were lucky, some of them would take refuge somewhere secluded. If I knew the shadow, it wouldn't seek out its victims. All it wanted was to send a message to me. It wanted to finish this, too, but it was desperate and hoped to end it on its own terms. Its attacks would be sloppy and it really lacked any plan. The fight itself wouldn't be anything difficult, but it knew that already so it was lashing out to lie to itself that it wasn't finished yet.

Once we arrived at Djose, Gippal rushed in first, bursting through the doors despite all our pleas for him to remain calm. He began frantically searching for his group, which was already the first sign something was wrong. The entrance to the temple was unguarded. There wasn't a single person outside. Upon entering, the main hall was empty. While Gippal ran to and fro, the rest of us cautiously scanned each area on the lower level without any results. There were no machine, no equipment, and no evidence there was ever any people. Looking up was enough to tell everyone where I was thinking everyone was, though I wasn't holding my breath on finding any survivors.

Jerking my head to the side, I motioned for my better half to lead us into the Cloister of Trials. Taking up the left corner, he signaled for me to approach and I took up the right before he entered. As we made our way into the hall, I noticed two bad signs that I was sure Gippal wouldn't appreciate. One was a scorch mark, a very deep scorch mark that indented the wall. The other was a smear of blood right beneath it, but it wasn't a clean smear. Sighing, I already knew what we'd start seeing soon, but there was no choice. It was here and I could end the madness right there. I wasn't about to hesitate.

Gippal was the first of us into the next room. He'd seen what I had guessed at the moment we opened the doors. Up against the far wall were several members of the Machine Faction… to a certain degree. Most of them had been scorched beyond recovery, flesh and wear burned into the wall. Other charred marks lined the remaining walls, twisted metal and shorting wires littering the ground beneath them. Gippal began walking towards the back toward the electrical net, but I quickly stopped him. The Blitz Ace went in his stead and turning to us, gave me a look to show that I was right in stopping him. We proceeded up the elevator only to see a few more burns along the floor and walls, a few more bodies, and pieces of machine still vibrating with electrical sparks. Yuna proceeded to the stairway leading up to the Chamber of the Fayth, her twin pistols held out in front. The rest of them proceeded, but I stayed behind. There was no need to proceed further. My problem wasn't here. It already possessed what it wanted.

"Shuyin! Help!" Rikku screamed from the chamber.

I hurried up to find a group of the Machine Faction huddled around the center of the chamber, a net of electricity pulsating around them. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine had already changed to Black Mage, but no Thunder spell was strong enough to break Aeon magics. After a few attempts at absorbing the energy into our swords, my better noted that it was bending each time and only hugged the captives tighter the more we tried to break it.

"What are we going to do?" Gippal growled, frustration building in his voice.

"We'll have to find him quick." I mumbled, looking back at the stairs.

"How? We received the alert almost an hour ago. He could be anywhere." Yuna said, staring at the electrical prison.

"No, he's here." I muttered, heading back outside.

Once I reached the elevator, the rest of them, minus Gippal, caught up and headed down with me. We left the temple quickly, me leading the pack. I knew what Ixion was and why it had been chosen first. It was the Aeon I'd used most extensively during my tenure as an unsent. It was also one of the Aeons who was cornered in its temple; the shadow knew where I had gone wrong and had gone out of its way to mitigate such mistakes. Ixion needed space to roam, space to use its assets to their fullest. Our challenge was much more difficult this time. The shadow had not the conscience I still carried while I was unsent. Not only did we have open terrain to take on the Aeon, we had to handle it swiftly because we didn't know how long that field would last.

Searching around past the bridge, I traced the steps I thought I would have taken back then, which told me next to nothing as I was still invested solely in the destruction of Spira. I wasn't sure what motive my abandoned pyreflies had, if it could have simply been revenge for my disowning them. The rest of them scoured the surrounding area beside the temple, but it was quiet. Yuna's next words made me fear the worst.

"What if he's not after anything? What if he just wants everyone to die?"

For a moment, I began to agree with her, but I couldn't let myself keep to that belief. I wanted to end it. I wanted it to be over and the shadow was the last step. For the next few minutes, it seemed as though Yuna was right and those Al Bhed back in the temple would die, but the quiet eventually ended with a stray bolt striking the bridge as I crossed back. My eyes wandered to the water and noticed it begin to boil, the Aeon electrocuting it as it rose from the depths.

"We always wanted to be the White Knight, didn't we?" My own voice asked me, plummeting from the sky to mount on its steed.

"This is the end for you." I replied, unsheathing my sword.

The rest of them quickly assembled next to me. Commanding the Aeon, my dark half had it kick up the water, swiping it with its horn to splash us with it. It was a smart plan, but Yuna and the rest were ready. Spherechanging into Psycher and Time Tripping everything in the vicinity, they saved us from the electrified water and gave us a free shot at the enemy. Nodding over to Paine and Yuna, I and my better were lifted and launched via their respective Telekinetic ability. Clasping hands, we began spinning, swords held out as we carved straight through the two of them. If this had been a typical fight, we might have ended it there, but the shadow pulled itself out of the temporal hold and deflected each of our strikes as we passed. Time resumed and it immediately scooped more water up to send our way. Rikku teleported in, using her Lightning Eater power to absorb the water before teleporting all three of us back to solid ground. Yuna and Paine hit Express and made to subdue the two by themselves, but Ixion merely launched Aerospark into them, slowing their haste while the shadow used its pyreflies to erupt the water, the force alone pushing them into the air. Once again, Rikku used Telekinesis and pulled them back to safety. Meanwhile, the Blitz Ace tapped me in the shoulder and noted that we'd need to get them to a better location to continue the fight. Together, we began leaping across the expanse in rapid succession, alternating our attacks too often for either of our targets to react well enough. Finally, following the Blitz Ace's last pass, I managed to bat a distracted shadow off toward the temple before taking Ixion by the reins.

"Smart move." The shadow muttered, picking itself back up.

I rode a struggling Ixion toward it, kicking off it in a backflip when I was close enough to send the Aeon straight into master. Wary of my move, it disassembled into a cloud of pyreflies and wrapped around the Aeon, cushioning it and turning it around to mount again. Charging into me, it tried to gore me, but I was just there to allow my better to come in from the side with a sidewinder kick. The Psychers activated Excellence and began swirling about, firing their sparks at the two the moment they began to recover and I jumped in with a hard dropkick to send them into the temple. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were the first to enter and went after the shadow too eagerly. It immediately used its own Hit & Run, finally ending that tactic. Without the protection to electrical attacks that the dressphere afforded them, the shadow worked quickly, mounting the Aeon once again. Commanding Thor's Hammer and using its Force Rain, it pulled apart the concentrated overdrive with each stream, sending them across the entire room. We were all sent screaming into the walls of the temple, the bolts searing anything they touched. I was lucky enough to have a weapon immune to the effects, but everyone else had become pinned. The sight told me enough about what the shadow must have done to the members of the Machine Faction, that knowledge angering me greatly.

"Oh, not affected by Ixion's spark, eh? Don't worry. I'll be right with you." It taunted, intensifying the Aeon's attack.

Pushing against the attack with my weapon, I tried to make it to him until I saw into the distance. Smiling, I looked back into my dark half, "Actually, I think we're cutting this short."

Grinder tore through the neck of Ixion moments later, ending the Rain of Thor's Hammer. Before the shadow could respond to Gippal's surprise attack, I unleashed my own Force Rain, blasting it through the back of the temple as it retreated into a stream of pyreflies.

"Are they alright?" I asked him.

With a slight nod, we set off to opposite corners to attend to our allies. The overdrive had been most effective on my better with the water properties of Brotherhood, but Paine had managed to spherechange to Festival Goer, making use of its Wall ability to protect her from accumulating fatal injury. Turning to Gippal, I saw that Rikku was perfectly fine, having used her thief's dexterity to flee from the onslaught following the initial blow. Yuna had reverted to White Mage to use Vigor for as long as she could.

"That wasn't fun." My better grumbled, slowly getting up.

"And we didn't stop him." Paine added.

"Shuyin?" Rikku asked of me.

Glancing over at her, I simply walked over to the back of the temple where I had sent the shadow. Yuna would note that summoning Ixion would probably be the first of many, which was a good supposition. It took dream boy to figure out what I was thinking, though.

"Heh, sounds like he's getting desperate." He said.

"Shuyin?" Rikku asked me again, a few footsteps telling me she was approaching.

Staring out into the sky, I recalled the events of the day and thought about how it would all be finished soon.

'I'll finish this, Shuyin. You're running out of places to hide.'

**Author's Note:** Ixion, eh? Well, falling on old tactics is a good way to go when you've run out of options. Still, why Ixion? Poor Gippal, he probably just redecorated, too. Tune in next time to see what else is in store!


	24. Shadow's Vice

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note:** Haha, two simple reviews, but I'm glad I haven't lost all of you lot just yet. =p Don't worry Haruka, like I said on my profile page, I'm back in this for another go and hopefully we'll get somewhere, but I doubt I can finish it even with this round. =\ It's humourous, but the story I originally intended to be a light follow-up to my true epic ended up taking far longer. Well, we'll get to the end eventually, but I'm also thinking to go another strategy. If it works out, I might be running at least two stories together. The idea is to give me more leeway to write so my muse isn't smothered by one story that a writer's block just happened to come upon. It should allow me to refresh my mind to update in a smoother fashion.

Speaking of which, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! 元旦快樂！明けおめことよろ！I finally had myself a small break and rested so I'm hoping I'm back with a fury. =)

Now to business: We last left off with a very confident Shuyin poised to make the final kill on his evil half. However, what ever happened to the Shuyin who was getting used to living in a primitive Spira? What ever happened to the Shuyin who was contemplating a new life? While many have overlooked it, one person has not. What new turns lie ahead and what impact might it have on this story's outcome?

** Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 23: Shadow's Vice**

Rikku

Shuyin was worrying me. Since Djose, he had kept to himself, pacing back and forth across the airship, looking up information in the onboard database Shinra had built, and spending his other time alone on the deck. Currently, though I was standing at the lift offering him something to eat, he just stared at his sword, sharpening its blade. After a while, knowing I wouldn't be getting any reply from the guy, I put the tray of food down and went back down to the cabin where Yunie and Paine were. They were sitting idly at Barkeep's bar; my guess was that they were just pooped. Last time we were out in the field, Gippal's worry and Shuyin's rampage took us for a ride. It was exhausting and it wasn't as if anything was resolved in the end. Shuyin's darkness still escaped and, that its tactic was changing to survive instead of attack, it stole some of our friends, too.

"What's our next move?" Paine asked, though her tone made her sound more like she wanted to say, "Can I sleep now?"

"Same story, I guess. Shuyin's not going to give up until the shadow is taken care of and it isn't going to rest until it kills Shuyin." Yunie replied, also with a tone in her voice trying to say, "Would it be okay if we just let him go after it? I've had enough."

Taking a sigh and knocking those thoughts out of my head, I walked over to them and took a seat on the third stool. I couldn't really think of anything to say so I just took to staring up at the ceiling. My mind was stuck on what to do with Shuyin. I understood that we were closing in on the end, but he was becoming detached from us because of it, bent on getting to the end so much that I was scared of just what he'd do for it.

"Rikku, you're awfully quiet. Not like you." Paine suddenly murmured, tapping my arm with her elbow.

"I'm just sleepy." I told her, not really sure what I could say about what was bothering me anyway.

"That's not it." Yunie mumbled, getting off the stool to talk to me directly.

When she put both her arms on either side of me and leaned in, I knew there was no getting away from talking. It only added against me when Paine slid toward me, too. I shrunk a little, still not sure what I could really say about it. It was just concern for the guy. I wasn't looking for an intervention on him or anything.

"It's nothing serious and I am sleepy." I said, looking away as they leaned closer.

"Riiikku ish worriiied about sooomeooone." Barkeep answered them for me, coming in from the back to restock.

"Worried? Let's see, could it be a certain blonde blitzer?" Paine mused, leaning in even further, "And I don't mean Yuna's little friend."

"Don't tell me you two haven't been noticing his change." I blurted back, pushing Yunie back and getting up from my stool.

"I don't know. He seems the same to me." Paine answered.

"He's closed off. It's hard to tell what might be on his mind unless he tells you. He also doesn't want to trust us because of his past." Yunie added.

"He's so focused now. Can't you guys feel it? There was a time when he was ready to live his life again." I said, turning back to them.

"I think the recent events robbed him of his chance. Shuyin has it in his mind to be alone with this struggle and he's existed for so long, I don't think there's much that can change his mind." Yunie replied, getting flustered about it, too.

"Shuyin has a lot of demons to work through." Paine suggested, "The war changed him. Losing Lenne changed him. He might not be able to get it back and maybe he's already settled on giving up. I think he just wants to beat Dark Shuyin and be done with it."

"That's what I'm afraid of. I just don't want him obsessing…"

The loud blare of the speaker interrupted me and the following voice would silence my words completely, "Everyone to the bridge. Pyrefly anomaly detected. Over and out."

We rushed to the bridge where Shuyin was waiting with his twin, Brother, and Buddy. When they noticed our arrival, Shuyin immediately went to Brother's side, his presence alone making Brother speed up the airship. Buddy was busy helping the navigation due to the faster pace of travel so it was left up to the twin to tell us what was going on.

"We found a massive signal in Zanarkand. A lot of the pyreflies there are circling one area of the ruins. Shuyin thinks it might be the big bad again. If he's in Zanarkand, though, that makes our lives easier. Nobody really there to harm." He said.

"Well, unless you count the monkeys." I quickly added as a quip.

"It's there and we can end this where I'm sure it's vulnerable. There's only one reason it would go to Zanarkand." Shuyin stated, turning his attention back to Brother soon after.

The rest of the trip was quiet. Nobody wanted to say anything that might provoke Shuyin into being more serious. To be honest, he was starting to scare me like he did before, before when he was meant to scare people. He was falling back into a harsher personality that he was learning to overcome by having a new life. If I could do anything to bring him back to me, there wouldn't be any question that I would try, but the problem was that the only way looked to be killing his evil half. I knew that killing that part of him was what could save him, but at the same time, it could destroy him first.

By the time we got to Zanarkand, Shuyin had already placed himself at the ramp and jumped off the Celsius the first chance he had. The rest of them didn't follow, opting to exit once it had landed so it was up to me to keep up with the poopiehead and keep him out of trouble. This task was much more easy to say than actually get done. Shuyin was trained to be able to dodge soldiers on the warfront. Soon after, I gave up on finding him and went to find where I knew he had to be going.

"So where are the pyreflies going?" I asked them, walking back to the Celsius.

My answer came from behind, though, "I'd say that way."

Looking back, I saw Shuyin pointing over to a pile of rubble in the distance, blocking what looked like a cave. The pyreflies were slowly being drawn to the area, digging at the rubble and clearing our path. Together, the five of us went to the area, swarms of the little life-bearing creatures our companions. The monkeys we set up in the ruins to keep tourists away seemed to have left, too, but maybe they just didn't like the new visitor they had to play with. It could also have been the ruins themselves. Since Yunie's Pilgrimage, I'd been to the Zanarkand Ruins a few times, but every time it looked just like before. This time, besides the pyrefly fog, the ruins looked a little new. The worn gold designs and the fancy patterns that were faded and cracked seemed put together again and polished. The broken bits of road I was already used to walking on were smoother than I remembered. Finally, we reached the now cleared entrance to the cave, which looked like a storefront after the renovations.

"Araboth…" Shuyin immediately muttered, surveying the entire building.

"Araboth? What's that?" I asked him, jogging to his side.

"A bar. I guess my problem felt it needed a drink." He said, his hand fiddling with the guard of his sheathed sword.

"Shuyin…" I tried to ask, reaching a hand out to touch his shoulder.

"Let's get moving." He muttered, moving on at a swift pace.

The entire inside of the building was covering in pyreflies, thicker than even when we were in the Den of Woe. What was stranger, the temperature dropped every time I came in contact with one them and a feeling would come over me that I didn't like at all. The shadow really hated Shuyin and the pyreflies in the building were soaked in it and reacting badly. Still, there was something I was being reminded of, too. From what Shuyin had been saying, his dark self was running out of options so it was running scared. But if that was true, none of the pyreflies here were showing that. I was worried.

"What is this feeling?" Yunie whispered, walking up to me slowly, one of her arms held up across her chest.

"I think the pyreflies are being forced to show us what Dark Shuyin is feeling." I told her, touching the nearest wall coated in the creatures.

"No, that's not what I mean." She explained, "It's like I can hear someone laughing."

"Laughing?" Shuyin asked, walking back toward us.

"I'm getting that, too. I'm sensing glee from these pyreflies. Are we sure Dark you is really trying to hide from us?" The Blitz Ace said, scanning the area with his hand ready to equip Brotherhood at a moment's notice.

"At this point, I wouldn't say anything for sure." Shuyin responded, "The thing's psychotic, remember? Who knows what it actually makes of the situation, but I can tell you that it's running out of options so it can be gleeful all it wants. After I destroy every inch of it, I could care less what it's feeling."

We continued to search the area, but nothing new was happening. The same feeling of Dark Shuyin's scary happiness and the swarming pyreflies stayed the whole time. That's when I got near a broken and splintered slab somewhere in the middle of room. When I bumped into it with my arm, the pyreflies moving around on it rippled and I could see a wooden surface instead. It spread from that point slowly, eventually completing what looked like a bar counter. Paine was the first to notice what happened and came over to investigate with me. She made a small joke about respect points, but this time, I couldn't hide my worry over it. Why did they change? After a while, the pyreflies started rippling near the counter, too, and the entire room began turning into something else. Unlike the counter, the rest of the room began forming in spots. A spot on the floor went from rotted and giving way to undergrowth to a sparkling polished hardwood. Another area grew a table and some chairs. Part of the wall that was coming apart healed itself and even developed a few plaques.

Shuyin immediately noticed and went to look at each new piece of the room. Walking over to the plaques, he looked like he was reading them when his attention came to the counter in front of it and he ran a finger across it. He stopped when a stool sprouted in his way and he turned in to rest his elbows on the counter, eyes trained on the back wall that was now holding shelves with filled bottles. A small glass appeared where Shuyin was leaning and he made note of it before taking a deep breath.

Before I could approach him to ask him what was going on, I saw a fist materialize behind his head and screamed to warn him. Almost like he knew it was coming for him, he ducked and elbowed the air under the fist and it turned into someone's gut while Shuyin continued, grabbing the arm. He pulled it and lifted the now completely formed guy, and went to throw him, but his hand would get caught on something and pull down on him, bringing the guy with him. The guy landed hard on his throat and his body fell on top of him while his head was still stuck pinned to the ground. Shuyin, in the meantime, was wincing on the floor holding his wrist. Paine and Yunie went to check up on the guy so I went over to Shuyin.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, tending to the wrist.

"Yea, just memories catching up to me, literally. But why this? Why now?" He asked out loud, standing up and walking over to the guy.

"He's long gone." Paine said, confirming it by rolling the guy over.

Blood covered his face and kept bubbling out of his mouth. It was a gruesome sight, but he wasn't even real, right? He had come from thin air and Shuyin was so ready to counter the attack. But the area was starting to look like something I heard about before. Shuyin told me about a time in a bar when he made a terrible mistake. He said someone who shouldn't have died was killed and, in the end, that was what made him a vicious enemy.

"Areth…" Yunie suddenly muttered.

Areth, that was the guy! But why would Yunie mention him? Was Dark Shuyin trying to replay Shuyin's regrets here to try and weaken him? "Shuyin, do you think…" I tried to ask him.

"I hope this was to your liking." A gentle voice purred nearby.

A moment later, I felt something brush by my arm and when I looked, an arm shot out to pin me by the shoulders to the someone behind me. From the corner of my eye, I saw that a dagger was pointed at my neck.

"Areth!" Shuyin growled.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" My captor sweetly replied, moving his face closer to me.

"Let her go." Shuyin said, his eyes turning cold like his dark half.

"I remember when this one was a bit more torn up." Areth continued, taking the dagger away from my neck and pressing it against my navel.

"Rikku! You let her go now!" Yunie ordered, pointing her Twin Bees at us.

I only felt the guy snicker and his grip on my shoulders tighten. The dagger started sliding gently across my waist, stopping at the side. All three of the warriors gripped their weapons, but nobody could make a move. With my shoulders pinned by his arms, there wasn't anything I could do faster than it would take him to stab his dagger into me. We were at his mercy.

"How pitiful it is to see you like this." Areth mocked, "You should never have lost your killer instinct. It was the only way you stopped me before, the only way you got away from my Trista's Aeons."

"I didn't need much to beat her band of misfits and you were done before you started, Areth. What you tried showing me here is your own guilt." Shuyin noted, pointing the tip of his weapon at him.

"My guilt? I'm not the one that killed him in cold blood, if you…"

"Yea, your guilt, for all the lives you stole in his name."

"Then, I suppose one more won't do me much more harm, will it?" He hissed, pushing the dagger's tip into my skin.

"Aw, poor kid brother. You just can't admit it to yourself. It's adorable and it was quite necessary for this to work."

Before Areth to inquire what Shuyin was talking about, I suddenly felt the dagger falling away and his grasp on me loosen while he struggled. Rolling away quickly, I turned back to see the Blitz Ace trading blows with the guy. The two of them had worked it out because he knew Areth would be focusing on Shuyin most of all so he could sneak away if Shuyin could get enough of the attention on him by getting under Areth's skin, which he's really good at.

Yunie jumped right in blasting the unsent with Trigger Happy and Paine readied for an opening of her own. Shuyin stayed back, checking my injury with a frown before standing in front to protect me instead of fighting, too. I would have argued, but I knew it wasn't the time. Shuyin must have seen Kirin again and that was a scar Areth knew very well to exploit.

Unfortunately for our side, Areth's own fighting ability was very good, and none of them could really get the upper hand over him. Eventually, he got close enough to Yunie to slice apart the weapons, but the attack seemed to catch Shuyin's attention, too, because he noticeably stiffened from it. Paine would be knocked away, too, so it ended up a one-on-one between the dream of the fayth and his counterpart's old enemy.

"You're good, for a cheap copy." Areth sneered, locked in close quarters with him.

"Oh, I'm loaded with goodies."

"I'll bet. Hopefully, you don't have the same wretchedness." The unsent added, disengaging his weapon and disassembling it back into the pyreflies around us, "This round's done, but I'll be back. Hey Shuyin, catch you around, eh old friend?"

With the said, he also faded into a stream a pyreflies and led the rest out of the area, taking Araboth with it. I went over to Yunie and Paine to see if they were alright while the Blitz Ace went to check on Shuyin who just began walking back out of the now ruined building.

**Author's Note:** Haha, if you thought I was going to let him off that easy, you're wrong. It just wouldn't be FFX, more specifically, it wouldn't be an FFX-2 continuation without an emo Shuyin. Now that a new adversary has revealed itself, what could it mean for the gang? Does Areth have something to do with Shuyin's return to Spira? Is he working with the shadow? Just what can an unsent Areth do? Find out more next time! See ya then! ^_~


	25. Consequence of Sin

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **Well, no need to beg Haruka as the next update is here!

Unlike Eternal Love, this story can very nearly be an entirely new concept in the continuity, which gives me much more freedom for how I want the story developed. In that sense, input from readers via reviews might just influence the direction of Spira. Naturally, since I've stopped considering this an AU, I must now keep mindful of important pieces of Last Mission's plot, that being a much more open Paine, three months of normal life, no more Shinra, etc, but those are only minor details that shouldn't be too difficult to keep track of.

Now, on to the story. When we left off last, another enemy from Shuyin's past revealed himself. It was the unsent of major blitzball rival and wartime arch-nemesis, Areth. For those who've read Eternal Love, you'll know a few bits to Areth's personality and history and may wonder just why he never revealed himself in modern Spira after feeling Shuyin's unsent awaken. Why now has Shuyin's return stirred the restless spirits? The answer may yet elude this story's telling for some time, but as smarties, you may pick up on hints in future chapters.

Furthermore, what does all this mean to start with? Why Seymour? Why Dark Shuyin? Why Areth? What's the overall plot behind everything that's happened since day one? Some of you may wonder if it's due to my personal opinion that all four had similar motives and that just may be the case, but I'm not going to blow that whistle just yet. ^_~ Now, without further adue, please enjoy the next chapter of Spira: The Eternal Discord!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 24: Consequence of Sin**

Tidus

_"Hopefully, you don't have the same wretchedness."_

After the run-in with Areth, Shuyin went dead silent on us for a long time and didn't even head for the airship. Rikku tried calling out to him a few times, but he just kept walking. For a while, it seemed like he was stuck on zombie mode, but that's when it happened. A stray fiend that was alerted by all the pyrefly activity came up sniffing for something to kill and Shuyin went ballistic. In a split second, the guy went from practically catatonic to violently vicious and the fiend never saw it coming. This would keep going since more fiends were being alerted to the killing spree, but Shuyin didn't stop. Actually, we were standing in the middle of the Calm Lands because of the path the guy ended up plowing down for us.

While he was at it killing fiends in droves, Yuna and Rikku explained to me and Paine about who this Areth was. Apparently, he was a very big bad back in Shuyin's day, the one who ordered an attack on the Zanarkand Dome that killed all of the Zanarkand Abes. I remembered that attack, too. For me, it was Sin that struck, but I remember leaving my teammates behind in the rubble. There were barely any survivors and Auron was all I had left. Then, he brought me to Spira where I was given a new life with Yuna. I could only imagine having to stay in Zanarkand after something like that. Just what Shuyin must have had to deal with was enough to make me hate that Areth. And Shuyin…

"Wow, I can't believe how stupid I was. Shuyin, that guy's been through a lot…" I mumbled while watching him continue to vent his anger on those fiends.

"After what he nearly did, it was hard to see his good origins." Yuna commented as she came up to me, hugging my arm close.

"I remember my Zanarkand…" I started to say.

"Your Zanarkand?"

"Remember what I told you and the others about how I came to Spira? Sin attacked Zanarkand, tore it to pieces. Well, the long version was that I was playing a blitzball game that night Sin attacked. From what Shuyin told you, I think he was in that game, too. My team was killed that night and there were barely any survivors from the stadium. If it wasn't for Auron bringing me to Spira, I don't know where I would have gone after that. The city was crumbling all around." I told her, recounting the horrible details.

"That's awful. I'm glad Sir Auron watched over you then. I would've hated for you to lose yourself like he did."

"But I can feel the same things he does. When we were trapped by Seymour in Bevelle, I hated him so much I wanted to tear his spine out." I said, clenching a fist.

"You never let your anger go too far, though. I think Shuyin fell far into the darkness of the war and being cast into the Den of Woe for so long. I know he was better than he thinks he is, but I think so much time has passed that it will take a lot to make him understand that."

By this time, Rikku had gone over to the guy to get him to stop his rampage, but it just wasn't getting through this time. Shuyin was embittered, but Lenne wasn't around for him like Yuna was for me. I think our summoners kept us in perspective and made sure we never went too far. Shuyin was without Lenne for over a millennium. There was no telling how far gone he was. From what Yuna and Rikku told me later, they got her back to him, but that was just a short while before he came back to Besaid so that must have broken him even more.

"There should be something Rikku can do, though." Yuna continued, taking a few steps forward.

"I'm not sure. She's not having much luck with him right now."

"But if Rikku can't do anything, who else can? Do you think we should take him to the Farplane to see Lenne?"

"I don't think that's really necessary, Yuna. Besides, I don't think seeing the person you can't be with would help things." I answered, putting my gloved hand up to my chin, "I lost Zanarkand, too, but very soon, I had Rikku who let me stay with the Al Bhed. After Sin attacked again, there was Wakka and then you. I think Shuyin just needs to know he's got us, too."

"I've tried that already. He doesn't seem to understand." Yuna sighed.

"Maybe he just needs to know we trust him." Paine suddenly interjected, walking up to my other side, "We wouldn't trust him before. We thought he was up to his old tricks. Maybe we still do."

Turning to her, I noticed a Garment Grid in her hand, clutched to her chest. She turned to the two of us next and handed Yuna the tablet. With a nod to both of us, she went to the nearby gaming station. Looking at the grid, I smiled at Yuna and set off. Rikku was still struggling with the guy who was taking up the activity of torturing a Nebiros fiend. By the time I reached the two, the fiend was wingless and spewing pyreflies from its many minor wounds, which Shuyin surgically incised. He was currently working at each of the segmented legs until I finally put the thing out of its misery.

"What was that for?!" He immediately snapped, grabbing me by the collar.

"For your own good." I told him, removing his hand from me, "You're losing it, Shuyin. Rikku's on the verge of tears because of you. You took us from Zanarkand all the way here. Did you even realize that? Just look around at your handiwork."

Shuyin made a few nonchalant glances around the Calm Lands before turning back to me, "A few less fiends to worry about might help the agencies here."

I took a deep breath and started again, "You and I both know that's not why you did this."

"Listen to him, Shuyin. Stop this. You have to calm down and let us help you." Rikku pleaded.

"I'm helping myself. It was just some harmless venting. I thought the shadow was the end of it. I wasn't expecting more garbage to show up." He grumbled, sheathing his sword, which was a good sign.

"That Areth, he could fight, too. When we were clashing, it felt almost like I was taking you on again. Was he…"

"Don't compare me to that monster!" Shuyin roared, his eyes darkening, "Areth slew many innocent lives in the name of his brother and shamed his memory. He manipulated others, ended up having thousands in his own military die at a whim and it was to get back at Zanarkand for an accident. His best friend warned him about the path he was headed towards and he shot him in the face without a second thought."

Both Rikku and I were absolutely shocked. Shuyin's Spira had guys like that running around? Seymour was the worst I ever saw of Yuna's Spira. He murdered his father, abused his mother's Aeon powers, and killed hundreds of Al Bhed and ronso to meet his ends, but that wasn't anything compared to what I'd already heard Shuyin and Bevelle do in the past. Now there was this sociopath Areth, too? Just what was the real Zanarkand like? No, there was a war. Things probably happened that created all this.

"Now, angry or not, confused or not, I've got to deal with this again. I should've dealt with him when I was an unsent, but I couldn't think about the possibilities of Areth lingering on as an unsent. All I could do was turn this Spira into a nightmare, too."

"You didn't know any better. Besides, we've all got to deal with…" I tried to say.

"No, he's after me again just like he was before. He's fixed on that, which puts anyone around me in danger. Maybe you guys should find and contain the shadow. I'll handle Areth."

"We're not going to separate now! You're not thinking straight, Shuyin! Last time you went off on your own, what do you think happened? Stop running away from us! Let us help you!" Rikku cried, hitting the guy's chest a few times.

"Hey, let's head back. I think we could all use a break, recharge the chargeables, eh?" I suggested, taking a palm to Shuyin's back and pushing him on.

He was reluctant; something told me he wanted to keep at it on those fiends a little bit longer, but I wasn't going to let him fall back into that rut again. We have enough to deal with without having our senior resource indisposed. The trek back toward Yuna didn't take all that long, but the awkward silence and the menacing aura pouring from Shuyin made it tiring nonetheless. When we got to Yuna, she revealed the Garment Grid that Paine offered her.

"What's this?" Shuyin mumbled as he looked at it in Yuna's extended hand.

I patted him on the back and tried messing with his hair, since that's what Wakka'd done to me when I zoned out about going back home. Since that wasn't doing it for him, I decided words might do a better job. "You're not a one-man army here."

"No, I'm not an army. I'm just a soldier and that war from long ago just won't give me a break and end." He grumbled again, attempting to take off.

Yuna quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back, saying, "And that's what this is, Shuyin. This Garment Grid is called 'The End'."

"And? I know what you're trying to do, Yuna, I really do, but I don't need the dresspheres and…"

"The End Garment Grid: It symbolizes your strength to put an end to this old life of yours. You have a new one… with us." Yuna continued, stopping Shuyin's loner retort by handing him the tablet.

Shuyin only looked at the device and sighed, "Thanks, but I've realized where I stand. This goes beyond a new life, a chance to start over, a chance to live again with Lenne. Something happened. It brought me, Seymour, Areth, and even another me back from the grave."

"We can work it out." Yuna interjected.

"I don't want to work it out! I want Shuyin and Areth gone for good! They cause enough trouble!" He growled, gripping the grid tighter.

"Being angry isn't going to help you get rid of them, Shuyin!" Rikku yelled.

"No, but I'm tired. I'm tired and I just want to be finished."

This time, I chimed in, "Then, let us help you. We'll finish this together. We'll get to a true ending, _The_ End." Following my statement, I pushed the grid against his chest.

Unfortunately, I think it only set him off, "You just don't understand. It's not about ending this problem to start over again. There is no starting over again! This is Spira; it's just the way it is, an eternal discord."

"We'll change that. It was a long hard road that brought the Eternal Calm to Spira. Let's go the distance and make sure it stays that way." I said, pumping a fist at him.

He seemed seething with anger instead, "Stop! All this motivational speechifying isn't going to do anything! You know what would? Areth's head on a pike! My stupid dark side evaporated into the abyss! All of the nonsense in this wretched world just needs to die!"

With that, he slammed his fist into the Garment Grid. Suddenly, an orb lit up and began pouring light all over the guy. As his eyes went wide, the rest of us stared, knowing he'd activated a spherechange. Paine had seen what was going on and made her way back to us then, but it was too late. The sphere was active and transforming Shuyin against his will. The light changed from a bright yellow into a dark violet and then navy before Yuna identified it as the Berserker Dressphere when she heard a shrill howl. After the light died down, Shuyin was shuddering, slightly hunched over and breathing very ragged breaths.

"Shuyin?" Rikku said, inching her way to him.

Looking up, his eyes pierced through all of us, a vacant but furious glare stemming from his feral state. I had seen the girls' Berserkers. This one was nothing like it and it seemed as though Shuyin wasn't in control. With a fearsome roar, he fully extended his claws and began stalking towards us. His eyes darted back and forth like he was seeing what we'd do to gauge us. But, before any of us could react, he lurched forward and charged…

**Author's Note:** Well, talk about a temper. With all the chaos that keeps ensuing, will Shuyin ever have the chance to live out his life? Actually, the more imminent question should be, will the group be capable of bringing Shuyin out of his self-pitying parade so they can focus on the tasks at hand? As the old saying goes: "united they stand, divided they fall", their enemies in Areth and the shadow know this all too well and their individual scheming seem to have taken their toll on a major asset to the team. If they can't elicit the information Shuyin has on them, it may be much more difficult to stop their rampages through a Spira that only recently regained the rewards of peace.

However, another pertinent question might just be, "Just where is Lenne?" This seems to be on the minds of a great many of you. Rest assured, that still lies ahead, but it may not be the solution everyone is hoping it to be...


	26. The Tormented Warrior

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note:** Hmm, methinks there be little fancy for another emo Shuyin episode. Well, how about psychotic Shuyin versus his dream twin?

** Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 25: The Tormented Warrior**

Tidus

The first strike was surprisingly dealt to Rikku. After he lunged, he rushed her and slammed his jagged claws down at her. Being in her Thief default, she was able to get out a dodge to let the guy bury his talons into the earth. Not skipping a beat, Shuyin just plucked it right out and swiped at me, to which I blocked with my sword. Eventually, after knocking Paine away into Yuna and taking a few more swings at me, he took one more look at Rikku before howling and running off to kill more fiends. Being a Berserker, he rammed straight into them and began ripping and biting them apart. Catching up to him proved difficult, too, because his movements were erratic. He just passed back and forth between us, looking for fiends arbitrarily, sometimes even skipping some that would've been closer.

Eventually, without any more fiends near enough to get to, he turned his attention to the next closest thing: the Travel Stop. The moment we noticed what he was targeting, we ran interference, but he just barreled through us, butting me with his head and sending me crashing into one of the supports keeping the tent up. For the next segment, I would be struggling with the ropes and cloth of the tent, trying to get myself untangled. Meanwhile, YRP recovered and surrounded him.

"Strategy?" Paine asked, spherechanging quickly to her special dressphere, Full Throttle.

"Knocking him out is always a good idea to start!" Yuna shouted, ducking a horizontal swing and pulling out her pistols.

"This is disasterrific!" Rikku added, spherechanging to Alchemist.

Yuna took to firing a barrage of bullets, but just like he could do with a sword, Shuyin just swiped them away with his claws and charged her. Full Throttle's Dextral Wing helped distract him from going after her, but Shuyin managed to grab on and start chewing and scratching at the bladed armor. Paine struggled, but couldn't shake him off of the armor, the system controls on the central apparatus starting to flicker and die. Yuna stepped in with her Thief dressphere, jumping in to pull Paine out before Shuyin could reach her. As they watched, the rest of the armor fell apart from the continuous abuse, finally exploding in self-destruct. In Berserker form, Shuyin's defense against physical injury was rather good and he pulled away from the wreckage nearly unscathed, but further enraged. He galloped straight into the two and tackled them to the ground, but Rikku placed a well-timed White Hole mix and knocked him back, dealing a good amount of damage at that.

The Berserker was thrown for a loop and Rikku quickly got in a Mega Potion for Paine and Yuna before switching to Black Mage to take advantage of its mostly physical power. Yuna changed to Dark Knight and Paine reverted to Warrior and positioned themselves for Rikku's magic.

"On you, Rikku." Paine stated.

Rikku concentrated on a third tier spell, but that would take a bit of time to get done so Yuna stepped in for Shuyin's next pounce, deflecting it with my Caladbolg. Shuyin reeled, but howled and charged again, this time catching the swipe in a claw and locking himself with Yuna. With her arms pinned to the sword, Shuyin began biting at the thick armor, cutting his mouth in the process, but he was beyond caring. After a few bites, even the black armor began to crack, but Rikku was ready with a Firaga, knocking him back a few feet. But before they could react, Shuyin recovered and bounded for Rikku, knocking her staff away and taking another swing, which Paine took in her place, being knocking out in the process.

"Paine!" Rikku screamed, ducking under the next attack and going back to Thief to get away.

Yuna lunged again with her damaged Dark Knight and caught him in a lock again. By this time, I was free from the tangle and moved toward her with Brotherhood at my side. Since he was still pushing against Yuna's sword, it gave me the chance to land a strong hit. What I didn't remember was that there was still a tactical mind hiding under all that blind rage, so the moment I got close enough, he slid his weight and pulled Yuna off balance, sending her careening right into me. Then, to add to the counter, he gripped both of us tight in a crushing clinch. The air was pressed out of me and I could feel Yuna losing consciousness. Taking deep breath to concentrate, I charged energy into Brotherhood and let it scatter around us. The burst was enough to alert Shuyin into letting go and seeking safer ground, which allowed me to take Yuna and get her to safety with the other girls.

"Rikku, look after them. I'll go it alone." I told the only conscious YRP member.

"But you're no match for him!"

"It's not like we have any other options." I replied, "Just take care of them and get them to safety if I fall short."

Before she could make any more protests, I sped off and met the feral former unsent in battle. Immediately, he set off, lunging at me with tremendous speed. I barely pulled off a dodge before he was already turned and headed back my way. I would parry the next pounce, but he quickly countered that counter and sent a foot into my gut while I tried to capitalize. It didn't help that right after I opened my eyes, his intimidating gaze left me partially paralyzed and my movement only slowed further. Once he figured out what he did to me, he just circled me without actually making any advances. My guess was the feral side to him liked toying with his prey, which didn't surprise me considering what I'd heard so much about his unsent days. I followed his eyes and knew they would tell me when he'd make a move. It was a better option than to just brace for him to make the sudden leap.

"Taking your time isn't the smartest idea." I grinned, lifting my sword when I saw the shift in his gaze.

He made the dash into me very low to the ground, making it harder to counter, but the small jump was all I needed to get on his back, locking my legs around his neck and sending him for a ride. As soon as he hit the ground, though, he was back up swiping madly. It was what I was hoping for. In his blind rage, he couldn't control himself to think about restraint. He was just as he was just before activating the sphere: lashing out and that would be my advantage. While he tore at the dirt and air, I snuck up behind him and smacked him hard with the flat end of Brotherhood. Recovering from that one put him over the top and he began charging like a bull, making his straight-line assaults very easy to evade. Lucky for me, he wasn't of sound enough judgement to realize it and just kept going.

"Yoo-hoo, over here!" I waved, spanking him in the rear when he made his pass.

"Aw, so close."

"Nope, not yet."

"Really, is that the best you got?"

Finally landing a solid hit on him, my kick sent him flying back, though it was still ineffective. Slicing through a few wayward fiends, he just dashed at me again in the same direct fashion and I just had to sidestep again, but I knew I was actually getting tired while his stamina seemed to be in limitless supply.

"Wow, calm down already!" I groaned, clubbing him in the back of the head.

"Still not getting it?"

"Geez, it never took the girls' this long to get out of Berserk mode."

"I can't keep this up for much longer…"

And that's when he finally caught me, slamming straight through my form with his skull before catching his step and slashing twice and ending it with a grab and bite. Blood poured out of my shoulder as I made a slash of my own to get him off of me. The attack carried with it an added effect of poison as I felt my vision cloud and a pulse of pain surge inside every few seconds. Taking in ragged breaths I could feel him coming again until he just froze in place mid-lunge. Looking further on, I saw Rikku now in her Psycher form, obviously using Time Trip to save me. Seeing the outfit flicker, I knew it was still in disrepair from the earlier encounter with Dark Shuyin so I rolled to the side to let her shift into Alchemist, shooting me with a few capsules to heal my wounds. As the Berserker rolled out of the lunge, it sniffed the air to relocate my position so I simply whistled and waved to let him know. Obviously, his next move was to charge again, but this time I had an idea. Since time magic worked well on him before, and since my own Something Unique Garment Grid had a fully functional Psycher dressphere, it was about time I gave it a go.

"I need one point twenty-one jigawatts! Stat!" I yelled, activating the sphere.

A stylin' pinstriped blazer fell over my off-white muscle shirt and leather pants adorned my lower half while I set a pair of shades over my eyes, lowering them just enough to peek out over the top at Shuyin. Flicking them back up, I waited for the right moment and sent another Time Trip his way, freezing him in midair with a click of the fingers.

"Phew, just in the nick of time."

Floating over, I first cast Express on myself to remove the effects of Intimidate from before, then went to work with my Mazer Eye and Psycho Bombs. Once time resumed, Shuyin was thrown for a loop, losing the benefit of all the feral instinct he had before and becoming disoriented by the reality warping dressphere I was using. Trying to coordinate himself again, his eyes darted around me before focusing and he snarled to ready his next assault. A quick Teleport threw him for a loop again, though.

"Don't worry, you weren't sure what you were looking for." Waving my hand at him when he turned around.

He growled, trying to shake off the earlier effects and jumped at me. My Telekinesis stopped him cold and I flung him a few yards away, floating towards him as he tried to recover. Before he could make another lunge, I picked him up with my mind and threw another Psycho Bomb at him. As soon as I left him land, he Mad Rushed me, this time hitting his mark with an Unhinge to boot. My sight clouded from the hit I took , but I knew what I needed to do. Without even taking the time to locate him, I activated Excellence and just waited. As soon as I felt him brush against me in his pounce, I grabbed him with Telekinesis and flung him into the ground. His next attack was Hurt, but with my current status, it was a waste of time and I just hurled him again. This went on for a few more rounds until my vision started to clear.

"You just keep going, don't you? Well, I'm ready to finish this." I said with a grin.

The next Mad Rush he made, I lifted him off the ground high and deactivated the dressphere. Taking out Brotherhood, I jumped up to him, kick-flipped off him when he struck at me, and slammed down with Spiral Cut, sending him soaring down into the ground hard. When I landed, the dressphere dissipated around him and an unconscious Shuyin was left laying in his small crater.

Walking over to Rikku, I asked her about Yuna and Paine who were still under. She was more concerned about Shuyin and told me the two were fine before rushing over to tend to the guy. I went to Yuna's side and picked the two girls up to take them to the… well, what was left of the Travel Stop. Seeing Rikku struggling to get Shuyin up, I let her take care of Paine instead and threw one of his arms over my shoulders and walked with him, Yuna in my free arm.

"Well, we really didn't need that." Rikku groaned, lying down next to Paine as soon as she got her down.

"No kidding, but it's over now. Who knows, maybe it helped him let off some steam." I suggested after putting the two down, shrugging.

"Do you really think so?" Rikku asked, a sarcastic tone in her voice.

"We can always hope something good might actually happen."

Rikku just sighed and put an arm to her forehead to show she stopped hoping a long time ago. _'Yea, you and me both, Rikku.'_

**Author's Note:** Well, all in all this chapter was just for battling fun, though it also developed the characters of Tidus and Shuyin as separate individuals, also to show that Shuyin may yet have someone to pass the torch to in the future... though, will that be necessary with the situation as is? Tune in next time to find out!


	27. Enter the Western Guardian

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

** Author's Note:** No reviews? ;.; I still see the views going up, but it'd be nice to have some critiques. Am I going in the right direction? Are the characters still IC after all this time? Is the story going how you thought it would go? If it hasn't, is it going in a better direction or would you have me shift gears? With my absences, it becomes a major concern that I am still within your fancy.

In any event, last we left off, Shuyin had accidentally activated his newly received Berserker Dressphere coupled with the The End Garment Grid and lashed out at friend and foe due to his frustrations. Tidus showed that he was capable of taking up the mantle of hero by felling the beast and proved he was a powerful ally, but more importantly, a friend. With Shuyin finally calmed, will he be able to recollect himself for the trials to come? Will the others be able to get through to him and form a true team to face the threat to Spira?

** Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 26: Enter the Western Guardian**

Shuyin

When I came to, I felt like a shoopuf used me for a jump rope. I couldn't remember much of the fight. Being trapped in Berserk made my thoughts scant and simple, broken pieces of rage and anger flooding my senses. I could recall activating the sphere and being filled with a surge of raw instinct, which was translating my desire to hunt down the now two enemies into bitter fighting and lashing out at the closest moving objects. Further, there was a growing hunger, a need to attack that was born out of the essence of the dressphere. I was powerless to contain it…

"I was so weak…" I murmured aloud, turning over from my position.

Rikku was on me in a second, "Shuyin, you're awake!"

Getting up without accepting her assistance, I walked a few steps, noticing the dream of the faith coming back over, as well. Turning away from him, I was greeted by the Al Bhed's bubbly eyes, pleading with them to have me speak to her.

"I'm sorry for what I did to you." I said lowly, trying to turn away again.

"It wasn't your fault." Rikku immediately replied, pulling at my sleeve to prevent me from looking away.

"I shouldn't have let it control me. I was trained better than that."

"Not with how you were reacting to everything lately. Shuyin, what happened should show you to trust us more instead of trying to do things all on your own. Let us in."

"The last time I did that…" I tried to end it, but she wouldn't let me.

"The last time, you didn't know any better. They didn't die because of you, either." She corrected, "Your city was at war. There are always casualties."

"Home…"

"Yea, and I lost a lot of my friends with it. I had to see Keyakku bloody and battered and knew I couldn't do anything to help him. That still didn't stop me from believing in Yunie and her guardians. We're stronger as a team."

"We're also a bigger target that way." I told her, finally getting the opportunity to walk away.

My present direction took me straight into a direct path with my better, but he would make no moves. As he passed me, I felt the guilt of having pushed him so much, eventually forcing him to activate his own Garment Grid, which I was sure he wasn't comfortable with. After he was past, I stopped and took in a breath.

"Rikku?" I whispered.

"Yea." She said softly directly at my back.

"They're all gone. They're all gone and I'm left behind." I said, revealing my true thoughts.

"You have another chance now. You can live your life."

"Why me? Why don't they get this chance? I'm the one responsible for their deaths and I get to come back to life while they continue to rot in the Farplane."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Of course it was, Rikku. Areth might have pulled the triggers and called in the strikes, but I was the one that let him in. It was my naïve actions that let Areth in and plot behind our backs. It was because I didn't figure out any of the schemes going on that let them proceed and kill everyone that ever mattered to me. And you know what seeing all that early would've done? No Sin, no pilgrimages, no generations of suffering. It's my…"

"Will you quit already! You couldn't have seen all that if you had the chance. Besides, did it ever occur to you that maybe a happier future might have other problems? There's nothing you can predict about what you could've done except that a lot more of Bevelle would've been destroyed. Yunie's from Bevelle, too!" She exclaimed, inadvertently pulling me into further guilt.

"I just don't know anymore." I admitted, looking down, "I spent the last days of my life believing that I could've done more and was ready to lay down my life to make amends in the end. After I died, I saw the result of my failure and thought I could repent by bringing a true peace to Spira. I just don't know my place in this world now."

I felt her hand gently place itself on my shoulder as she walked to my side, "Your place is what it always should've been, Shuyin, to be you. Honestly, you think too much of yourself. You're not responsible for everything that happens. You're only one person. Nobody expects you to be the hero."

"Nobody ever knew me anyway. No, I wasn't expected to be a hero. I was expected to be an entertainer, a jock, or later on a great evil. But the real me is kept hidden away and nobody cares." I muttered, grinning at the end.

Rikku suddenly pulled close, looking up at me with her innocent eyes like Kirin used to and sang, "Nobody knows who I really am; maybe they just don't give a damn. But if I ever need someone to come along, I know you would follow me and keep me strong."

I looked at Rikku and saw Kirin again. These were her thoughts from the past. Somehow, they were being manifested by Rikku though I wasn't hallucinating like I had been as an unsent. It was real and that brought me a measure of hope. The words were impactful, as well. Her message was clear and showed through Kirin's own doubts. She was fine being kept as the little sister who only eased the drama going on in my life without ever discussing her own difficulties because she knew I would be there for her when it really mattered. It was the companionship that made us stronger as a team in my past even if it was broken by external forces we couldn't see. Rikku was using this to remind me of that fact because separating myself had done worse. I was severely injured, rebutted possible strategies, and even went mad with self-hatred and doubt only to lash out at the ones who'd been trying to help me. I should've thought to retain the good qualities of my past rather than abandon my new allies to pursue demons that were no longer solely my own.

"I will, Rikku. Just like I was for them, I'll be here for you… because I know you'll be there for me." I told her, smiling contently for once.

As we headed back, we noticed that Yuna and Paine were coming around. I apologized to them both when we arrived, but they didn't want me to. Yuna shook her head with a smile and Paine shrugged it off and walked a few steps away. It seemed I had a new group that I should've accepted a long time ago as friends and not simply as allies. It took some doing, but they finally got through to me and as we were together, we would strike fiercer than before. Areth had revealed himself an unsent like I had been, existing for the past millennium. I didn't know how that would affect his personality, though he had been free to roam unlike me and his conscience had all but dissolved by the time I sent him to an early grave. My darkness was desperate, though, so it would still be first. Areth never could cause much trouble on his own anyway, so leaving him was safer than leaving the shadow.

And as it happened, the shadow came for us. Suddenly, the ground erupted into billows of dirt and rock. Amidst them was a figure who cackled wildly before revealing another figure. As the dust began to clear, it was evident that the shadow was holding yet another Aeon captive, though this time, it was only summoned and not possessed. What its intentions were weren't clear as a struggling Aeon wasn't going to do it much good.

"Hello one and all. Did you miss me? I know you were shocked before about my Ixion steed, but maybe my next trick will have you wowing in amazement." It mused, brushing some of its hair away from his face.

"Looks like your back-up's a bit tied up. She's not goings to be much use to you like that." I spat.

"All good things come to those who wait, Shuyin. Are you ready for this?"

"Let Shiva go now!" Yuna screamed abruptly, pointing her guns.

"Oh, I plan to. But the end result might not thrill you either." It mused, "Then again, maybe it will. Who knows?"

With that, it dissipated the bonds on Shiva and pushed it forward. While the rest of them prepared to get Shiva to safety, I waited, knowing that it wasn't over. Grinning, it used its sword and stabbed the Aeon through, killing it on the spot. As it broke into pyreflies, though, the shadow summoned forth a tiger-headed Coeurl fiend. Using the power of the fayth's pyreflies, it forced them upon the fiend, warping it.

Pyrefly after pyrefly assaulted the creature causing it to grow, to change, and to fill with unabated fury. It was confused as was the fayth surrounding it. The shadow had possession of both and was bending corporeal and ethereal properties in them to create something new and vile. I knew about this power as an unsent. I was capable of it, as well, which now became clear as to the reason the shadow started with Ixion. It was an unconscious move on my part, but I did force the fayth and the ensuing horde of fiends to combine with the machine of Djose Temple and they were successful in doing so. This time, though, what awaited would be worse. This time, we had another Aeon-fiend.

"Ever hear the legend of the four guardians?" The shadow suddenly inquired.

"We're not interested in your stories. Just get…"

"There was Suzaku and Seiryu…" It said, interrupting me.

Slowly, it walked forward and began to pet the incomplete creature next to it, "And Genbu…"

The cloud of pyreflies cleared and a great roar echoed through the Calm Lands, "And Byakko, magnificent White Tiger of the West."

The Aeon-fiend took a few steps forward, its mouth snarling and spewing frost with every breath. Its eyes glared at each of us as we unleashed our weapons. My hand brushed over the Garment Grid, The End, and I felt myself shudder, taking my eyes off the enemy for a single second to scan its surface. Passing it and reaching at the hilt of my sword, I unsheathed it as the rest of them began attacking the "Byakko". Yuna's bullets were the first to reach, but they were soon stopped, encased in small balls of ice.

"Legend said it had the most devastating power of frost. Let's put that to the test." My dark half continued to joke.

"You've got your facts wrong, jackass. Byakko was a divine being with the prestige of glistening metal. That was its true element. What you've created is nothing more than a cheap representation. You really need to work on your…" I shot back, but was interrupted again.

"Details. Kitty, go play with the grown-ups."

As we charged, into battle, I noticed Rikku turn to wink at me and memories flooded into my mind again. It was Kirin who, despite being broken inside, had offered her continual support to the very end. It was our first game back from the off-season. Jurama had already been dead for a month and the last I'd seen of her, she had grown her own dark intentions, fueled by hatred and revenge. One month of regret must have brought her back from the brink before she proceeded down a path she could never return from, my path. She would wink at me before moving into the Sphere Pool to let me know she had come back. Now, Rikku was telling me the same, that the evil that I couldn't fight, she would for me no matter what.

_Hito no kokoro wa utsuri  
Yuku nukedashita'ku naru  
Tsuki wa mata atarashii shuuki  
De fune wo tsurete'ku_

This is a new chapter to the story. I'm not alone.

_And every time I see your face,  
The oceans heave up to my heart  
You make me wanna strain at the oars,  
And soon I can see the shore_

I'm not beyond saving…

**Author's Note:** Well, a new resolve for the old one, eh? With a united team, can they finally bring the chaos to an end? First thing to do is fend off the "Byakko" and see about taking down Shuyin's dark half. Then, we'll see what Areth has in store. Also, now with a confident Shuyin at the helm, what might be the antagonist response? Will they simply allow a united force? How can they tear them back down? Find out next time!


	28. Two Front

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** No reviewers for me again? *sulks in Den of Woe* :(

Well, in any event, the next segment to the story will feature that impending battle from last time, but will cover some foreshadowing of things to come, though that may only play out much later. ;)

** Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 27: Two-Front**

Yuna

Following the fight with an out of control Shuyin came yet another battle, though with his alter ego. Whatever happened with Shuyin, though, it seemed to have helped in bringing him out of his solitude. It would seem losing himself to his rage showed him what he had already been doing to himself lately and Rikku allowed him to see that he was not alone as he thought. Still, there was something else…

"Yuna, heads up!" He said, the former dream vision of the fayth.

Flipping, he sliced apart the ice block that the fiend was about to crush me with. I had lost my concentration. Paine and Rikku had already gone to engage it, spherechanged to Berserker and Samurai respectively. I noticed Shuyin stall at seeing Paine's choice, but made nothing more of it and quickly changed to Floral Fallal to cut the battle short.

While his creature attacked, Dark Shuyin would lose himself to the heat of battle and bound for us, first slicing at Rikku to push her off balance for the Byakko's claw swipe, then to my love to trade blows before taking advantage of a flunge, using the Brotherhood as a step to get to Shuyin. Shuyin would quickly deflect the next low horizontal cut and they would trade off while the rest of us remained on Byakko.

"Yunie, can you use a Great Whirl to put it up in the air? I have an idea!"

Nodding, I used my attack on it just as a barrage of icicles were to come my way and, as Rikku requested, focused the swirling particles to push the fiend up into the air. Rikku, too, ended up riding the current and it was soon after I understood her plan. The Byakko had a thick hide of flowing ice coating and replacing typical fur. Its underbelly, however, was only covered by the thinner undercoat, which my cousin wanted to exploit. It was difficult with the fiend in attack mode as it stayed low to the ground in a pouncing position. When she was close enough, she attempted Zantetsu and extended her sword. The creature grew wise to her intentions, though and spread an aura of cold around itself. Coupled with my wind attack, this created a blizzard and disoriented Rikku while covering her weapon and armor in thick frost.

"Owwie… Well, it was worth a shot." Rikku said, rubbing her bottom after she landed.

"I didn't think something Dark Shuyin would throw at us could be that simple to beat." I replied with a light smile.

Paine came next, distracting the fiend by crawling all over it, biting and scratching at anything she could. She tried a great many of Berserker's arsenal of crippling abilities, but sadly, with the powers of Shiva, the power of an Aeon, it wasn't going to be afflicted by any of them. Seeing an opening, Rikku lunged and embedded her katana into the Byakko's side, but that only enraged it and created another cold aura. Both her katana and Paine herself were frozen and Rikku's armor was doing poorly already.

"Rikku, spherechange now!" I yelled, using the Tough Leaves ability of my right pistil to aid our resistance against the ice-based attacks of the tiger.

"Right!" She returned, going Alchemist to help Paine.

Before she could use any of the capsules, Byakko attacked, knocking the gun from her hand and bounding after her. My love would step in and counter with his Spiral Cut to send the creature reeling, but it would return fire with a rain of icicles, destroying the gun and forcing both of them to duck and cover. In the middle of that assault, I intercepted with Heat Whirl, melting what I could and using the flames to surround us in a ring of fire, hopefully to buy time from the fiend.

"We have to get to Paine!" I said, but I would be too late.

Byakko's sheer cold smothered the flames by freezing the grass that allowed them to burn. Its eyes glowed a bright cerulean and the aura only spread further, coating the petals of my own dressphere in frost. Burdened by the weight and loss of integrity, Floral Fallal began to crumble and lose its hover capability. I detached myself from it, but it would strike then, sending me a few yards away and slightly paralyzed from its chilling touch against my skin.

"Yuna!"

Slice and Dice held off the Byakko from attacking me further, but it was still no permanent answer to our problem and the water properties of Brotherhood only greatened the risk of another broken weapon. I warned him to spherechange, too, and he activated his own Samurai dressphere having always favored his swordplay to anything else. The slightly more advanced special abilities of the Samurai helped him somewhat, but no sword was going to beat a creature forged by a swordsman with as much experience as Shuyin's shadow. It was predictable that he would've created safeguards for it like the ability to freeze the blades.

Taking time to catch my breath, I turned my attention to the other battle taking place. Shuyin was having a likewise difficult time besting his other, both of them matching move for move, with only differing styles being their distinguishing trait. While our Shuyin was much more flowing in his attacks, the shadow maintained the same harsh quick bursts that he'd used when the Gullwings took him on last time. Eventually, Shuyin was overpowered by the mad swings and near constant Overdrives he was capable of. However, unlike the struggle we had with him, Shuyin recovered each time and seemed almost to draw upon the relentless strikes, taking them, moving past them tired as he was, but retaliating each time.

Meanwhile, my love's chosen dressphere was bested and he took to Dark Knight, bearing smooth armor in contrast to our rough and jagged versions. His seemed to conform in the form of his body, seeping into each crevice to give him the most maneuverability for one dressed in heavy armor. The Brotherhood was also changed, though it was warped into something closer to our outfits. The exaggerated blade tore into the Byakko, but even that wasn't enough. Eventually the fiend altered its aura, opting for liquid cold to not only freeze the armor by degrees, but also corrode it until my love could barely move. It was then that it finally unleashed Diamond Dust, or rather its version of it, a tremendous blizzard with swirling winds and blankets of snow and hail. Once the assault was complete, I saw him frozen even worse than Paine. Rikku had recovered by then, but was still feeling the effects of the previous rain of ice. She managed to reach me for what it was worth. Two of us were down, Rikku was hurt, I was still unable to fully move from Byakko's potent frost, and Shuyin was otherwise occupied. Of course, then the fiend came after us.

With me and Rikku both unable to make any move to defend ourselves, I worried it could end there. Shuyin was knocked down, as well, finally tiring enough for the shadow to overcome his guard. The battle seemed bleak and our likely outcome was starting to seem clear.

"No! Don't hurt Yunie!" Rikku screamed, darting between me and the Byakko when it finally came close enough for a physical attack.

The creature's massive claw tore into the weak Alchemist wear and threw my cousin a few yards away, knocking her unconscious as blood slowly seeped out of her wounds.

"Rikku!" I shouted, reaching out for her, but unable to get to her.

At the same time, I heard her name from afar and looked to see Shuyin kick his alter ego into the creature, followed closely by a variation on his Force Rain overdrive. He rushed to Rikku's side immediately, checking her wounds to see how severe they were. I saw that he was shaking with anger at seeing the blood staining his glove, and then he would stand and finally reach for The End. Looking at it, he took a few breaths, but returned it to his pocket with a frown. _He still can't bring himself to use it._ Moving his sword to attack position, he lunged for the Byakko just as it recovered, shrugging the shadow off of it. Just like before, sword attacks weren't doing much against its thick and icy hide. However, Shuyin's sword was doing slightly more than any of ours had. His strikes were chipping pieces of the frosty fur and it seemed that was due to being fueled by Rikku's injury. Shuyin was angry, which made him more powerful. Likewise, it made him much more like his dark half. I could see it in his eyes, sense it surrounding him, and it frightened me.

"Shuyin, I don't think the swords are working on it! You need to spherechange!" I suggested, hoping a new class would calm him down.

Unfortunately, he ignored me, taking to his reckless striking. Eventually, this turned to calculated maneuvering as the Byakko reused the cold aura that had stopped us all before. Shuyin was slowed, but still attacking with his rage boiling inside to keep him moving. Soon, he found his way onto the fiend's back and pushed his weapon straight through its skull, tearing it out from the left side of its jaw.

Afterward, the fiend collapsed and Shuyin flipped toward me, saying when he landed, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, the effects are slowly wearing off. How is Rikku?"

"She'll be fine. Her wounds are shallow, but she'll need time to recover. When you can move again, see if you can get her to the airship. I'll go deal with the shadow."

Looking behind him, my eyes widened, "I think there's something else you'll need to worry about."

The fiend stood back up, its dangling jaw slowly freezing and pulling itself back in place. The broken pieces of its coat began to loosen and it shook all of them off itself as icy particles and powder snow. Its new coat was much more spiky and rough, almost crystalline in structure than it had been before.

Shuyin looked and growled, "That's it! You asked for it!"

Finally, Shuyin took hold of the Garment Grid I had given him and looked at the dresspheres it held. I had placed Berserker on it along with Dark Knight and Psycher for strength, but I also made sure to keep Black Mage on it, too, being the first dressphere he ever used. He smiled upon seeing it and activated that spherechange. A white light enveloped him and turned to streams of violet and black light, wrapping themselves around him to produce a pitch-black trenchcoat with matching black pants. The darkness of the clothing seemed to move as if there was a presence within them. The dressphere also manifested a slate shirt with ancient glyphs glowing against its surface. As it completed, Shuyin hovered before me, pockets of magic crackling at his fingertips.

"Now, let's see what I remember of Jurama's wrath." He growled.

"Fire element should work on it, but my Heat Whirl didn't seem effective."

"No, this is one of its creations. No doubt it put some of our resistances into the Aeon-fiend's creation. I think I'll need to step up the game." He noted, glancing at Dark Shuyin who seemed intent on simply watching the battle.

"Oh, look at you go. Got it in one, too; I'm impressed." It said.

Shuyin began casting Flares at the creature, the tremendous power of the spells searing straight through the frozen hide. Byakko, in desperation, unleashed its overdrive again. Swirls of high winds, hail, and snow covered the area, shrouding Shuyin from my sight, though I was caught in the maelstrom myself. In the distance, I made out flashes and realized it was Shuyin who had continued the Flares through the overdrive. Before long, the storm died down and a dying Byakko whimpered before exploding into pyreflies.

"Applause all around for the wonderful effort." The shadow beamed, clapping his hands.

Without saying anything, Ultima was cast against him, followed by a couple of Flares. Once it recovered, it laughed and faded into a stream of pyreflies and Shuyin returned to me.

"Let's get Rikku and the others to the airship." He said, offering me a hand and covering me in the heat of Fire to melt away my paralysis.

Together, we thawed out the two and Shuyin took hold of Rikku while using his apparently advanced Black Magic to lift the others. We began walking toward the Travel Stop and I contacted Brother to locate us via the tracker and land. Before we could get to him, though, another cloud of pyreflies suddenly bubbled from the ground to form another figure.

"My my." A sinister voice mired from behind, "What passion. Much like that interview after out big game, eh Shuyin?"

When we turned, Areth was there to greet us, his smile eerily showing both disdain and affection for us. Shuyin was about to react when Areth put up a hand to stop him, pyreflies flying all around us to show that Areth was there to show us something rather than fight. From what I'd seen of him, he was far less outwardly violent as Shuyin's darkness, though just feeling the pyreflies told me he didn't have any true benevolence to his unsent unrest. The pyreflies began changing the sky to night and the Calm Lands into a strange area very similar to the sphere of Zanarkand I saw during my pilgrimage.

_"What was going through your head when Areth performed your father's technique?" A voice rang out from behind._

Shuyin and I both turned to see a crowd of people hovering over two that were hidden from view. Shuyin seemed to recognize it immediately, as well as the other group of people when he knowingly turned to his left. I could tell one face in the new group once I was alerted to their presence. Areth was among them, dressed in different attire.

_"Does this mean that the Super Shot really isn't all that invincible?" Another one of the first crowd asked._

"What is this? Memory lane for you? Unlike you to replay your failures, Areth." Shuyin suddenly spoke, turning back to the unsent.

"It's been a long time. I've had a change…" He began, walking over to his own image, "… for the better, though, I assure you."

"I'm sure. So why this scene? You like ogling my girl's cute whimper at your city's crazed pack of vultures?" Shuyin mused.

I turned to look into the crowd and sure enough, I did see Lenne cowering next to a much gentler Shuyin who was tending to her while fending off the crowd. She was beautiful and he was very sweet, his soft eyes gazing lovingly at her while she strayed as far as she could from them.

"Vultures? I think you'd be honored. They were actually paying a common street rat attention." Areth's voice sounded so far away.

"Well, the street rat did do quite a number on your face, didn't he?" The macho insult trades began to die down to my ears as I paid more attention to the scene showing before me.

_"This… is Lenne." He said, introducing her after another one of them asked who she was._

His gaze was completely different from how he'd looked at me, even now that he had been given a second chance. There was an innocence to him, the same innocence I felt buried deep inside of him when he told me about having lost it in his youth. My love had told me that losing his Zanarkand had threatened to change him, as well, but he was brought back by his first friendship with Rikku, then meeting the rest of us. Shuyin had had his friends, too, and Lenne was there to keep him so pure and wonderful, but they were taken from him and resulted in this… I could've cried for him then if he'd have let me.

Instead, before I could see any more, an Ultima flew into the crowd and dispersed the pyreflies as Shuyin's extended hand fumed from spell use. Why wouldn't he let me see? Why did he resent what Areth had done?

"Cool it, _ace_. Only here to chat for now. You think I'd give up my brother's vengeance so easy?"

Shuyin wouldn't respond to the comment, instead keeping his gaze on me from the corner of his eyes. What was wrong? Why did he want to hide the man he was, the one that I had hoped could return and give him a real life again?

"Are you there, oh ancient one?" Areth continued, snapping him fingers.

"What do you want?" Shuyin plainly answered, turning his gaze back on the unsent.

"I want what I've always wanted. I want the world to see you for who you really are, not the bright shining star you've shielded yourself behind." Areth explained, "I want to give my brother his justice."

"Shuyin is done making up his past already!" I screamed, moving in front of him with extended arms as if to protect him from the unsent.

"Oh no no no. He's far from ready to do that." Areth snickered, looking down.

When he looked back up at us, the smile was back and I visibly shuddered. What was it about him? He seemed to epitomize hidden agenda and I had only thought Shuyin was capable of so much apprehension. This was Shuyin's enemy from his past? Maybe there was a part Areth played in turning Shuyin into the monster the shadow now represented. Pyreflies covered him and the unsent was gone in a flash, leaving behind only a shiny shard. Walking over to pick it up, I noticed that it looked like a piece of a sword, though the engraving on it was ancient. What did it mean?

"Let's get these three back to the airship." Shuyin said, having already turned to board the craft that was landing.

_Shuyin…_

** Author's Note:** Areth's unsent mission has been revealed, though Shuyin seems to have a strange attitude towards things. Has his will to live on altered his previous convictions and his willingness to accept his past ill deeds? Also, Yuna seems to show genuine concern. In previous chapters, Yuna showed that she could be a kindred spirit to the former unsent despite how much Shuyin had wanted to stray. Rikku had been his newfound heart. Might Yuna be his newfound soul?

And beyond that, just where is this story going? =o


	29. The Fall of Cherry Blossoms

** Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Boo, no reviews. . Anyway...

The other chapters so far have been pretty simple on the surface. I think I prefer the more major characters as the games show you more of their personalities than the others. This following chapter will be in Paine's POV and show the bridge between who she was since X-2's ending and how she developed come Last Mission. Some elements of the chapter adhere to her role in Last Mission. I felt after some of her less than in character actions in previous chapters, particularly well back in the beginning with her Oprah moment, perhaps it was time to see where she was at this point. Notibly, there is development to show how she's progressing from cold and stoic warrior princess to how she was at the end of Last Mission. I think if she's well received, I'll try to have more chapters with her, too. I was trying to widen the range of characters already with a Wakka and Lulu chapter earlier, but it was too hard to write worthwhile chapters for them as you don't learn enough of their personal dealings once X-2 started. I didn't think after two years, they'd still have the same concerns, but I had no real choice but to incorporate that for them since I didn't really know what else to talk about. Paine was similar since you learn about the one significant event in her life that turned her into La Femme Nikita, but beyond that, you just see how she became softer through the game and how she became much more open by Last Mission without much detail to her in between.

Okay, that's a lot of banter to get you lot started, so let's move on. I'm sure it's already no surprise that this story, while involving and even taking the POVs of other characters, is still basically another Shuyin story. I figure that FFX was Tidus' story, X-2 was Yuna's, and Shuyin's never really had one told, though Eternal Love could've been mine for his. However, considering it in that light, Spira should be viewed as its sequel and therefore still another rung of Shuyin's Story. I plan to move away from Final Fantasy after this one is finished, especially with my plan to start another story about the anime, Ga-Rei Zero, alongside this one soon. However, I may choose to return with maybe a Lenne story or Rikku story in the future, but that's a ways away.

Yes, more banter so let's get on with the show!

** Spira: The Eternal Discord**

** Chapter 28: The Fall of Cherry Blossoms, A Warrior's Honour**

Paine

"Ahh!!" I heard the dream of the fayth groan.

Both of us were recovering from the Byakko's icy aura, though I was being a little more quiet about it. I guess it couldn't be helped. The guy was hit harder than I was.

"Wakey wakey, Dr. P!" Rikku's voice hollered, coming from behind and knocking on my shoulder.

"Four respect points." I grunted back at her.

"Aw, how many do I have now?" She continued to pester.

"I lost count."

"Hah, that means I start with a clean slate!" She suggested.

"Or you could be in the negatives."

"That could be dangerous." Yuna noted, walking up on my other side.

"How long have I been out?" I asked them.

"You two were gone for about five hours. The technology salvaged on this ship doesn't cover freezing and no item or typical nul spell was strong enough against Byakko's Aeon-fiend power." Shuyin lowly stated, taking his leave after adding, "You two need to be more careful next time."

"Well, isn't he a killjoy!" The dream complained.

"Well, between your whining and …" Rikku tried to say, "I used that expression wrong, didn't I?"

"No, not wrong. Just Rikku." I answered, getting up to leave.

"Are you sure you should be getting up so soon?" Yuna asked me.

"I'm fine and I could use some air."

My first stop was the cabin. I figured it was too noisy in the med bay with everybody around and I needed some time alone. From this adventure, I was changing and I knew that I enjoyed it deep down. Still, it was a long and hard trip that got my personality to how it was before I joined the Gullwings. I'd grown accustomed to it already, even to go so far as saying I enjoyed the distinguishing factors of it to the rest of them. But the way things had been going, finding myself forgiving what happened to me those years ago and even blowing up with those touchy feely things that one time, I knew I was getting that old Paine back. I was going back to the happier Paine, the one that chilled out with Gippal, poked fun at Baralai, and…

"Nooj…" I sighed, staring up at the ceiling now that I had gotten to my bunk.

Instinctively, my hand found its way to my chest and rubbed the area where the scar still existed. That memory stayed with me even after I found out he wasn't the one that shot us. It was just the look in his eyes, what he said to me, and how far he separated himself from us later. Some part of me could never forgive him even if I consciously had. It was likewise why I couldn't forgive Shuyin. Traveling with Yuna and Rikku, I found out that it was really Shuyin that used Nooj and shot us all. It was him that forced Nooj to leave us all behind. I hated him so much for doing that to us, to me, and I wanted to have him destroyed somehow, but I had to settle with a sending. Later on, I found out why he was acting like that. He wasn't really trying to hurt anybody. It was just his own broken heart so I had nobody to blame for what happened to me again. And I was fine with that since I still helped get the guy sent, but then he came back. He came back and I was honestly terrified that he would ruin it all again. Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal reconciled after we had him put to rest. They and I could start again and they were trying to unite the three factions.

"Nooj…" I whispered to the ceiling, rolling over to my side.

After seeing those spheres, it was no secret that I cared about him. I would never admit it to any of them out loud, but they'd have to be the dumbest people on Spira not to get it. But he was in love with Leblanc, for whatever reason he might have. I know it can be seen as jealousy, but really now, what can a person see in her? At the end of our last quest, though, I think I could say I had to have respect for her. Even though she couldn't do anything against Vegnagun, she fought because she loved Nooj and wanted to protect him. It was the one and only time she ever thought nothing about herself. Like she said in the end, "The power of love conquers all…" and she was an idealistic believer. No matter how much I hated to admit it or how much I want to say otherwise, I was very jealous of that part of her. Yuna had that about her, too, and because of it, a dream of the fayth that was supposed to be gone forever was brought back to life just for her. She saved the world twice, both times out of love, the second time with love.

Grumbling and beating up my pillow, I threw it against the wall above my mattress and got up. Next stop for me was the engine room. Walking downstairs, I saw Shuyin waiting for the lift in the distance and take it up. Getting to the lift myself, I took it down, but made a note of its earlier passenger. When I got to the engine room, I walked over and leaned against the railing.

_"Whaddaya got in mind for fun? Any ideas, Dr. P?"_

I smiled at the memory that presented itself. Looking down at the railing and the engines further along, I took a deep breath and headed down there. I fiddled with the consoles a little, checked them for proper function and really just wasted time to replay the memory.

Smiling as I looked at one of the converters, I cleared my throat and recited, "Me? A ship that glides through the air. That thing you mentioned before. If it's for real, I wanna fly it."

And now I was on one of those things. Gippal was a sort of engineer, rather a leader of a conglomeration of engineers. It seemed our aspirations took a slight skew from how we envisioned them, but it was working out. Gippal was a capable leader… Did I really just think that now? As for me, one day I'd fly the Celsius. I knew Yuna was only a part-timer now. We were together because of this new epidemic, but the Gullwings were breaking apart. The main objective of our team leader was accomplished already after all. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but she had her special one back with her and to take that private life away again would be cruel. And then there was Gippal. At one point, he was with Rikku. The feelings seemed there, at least. Shuyin was getting in the way, though, but maybe those two still have a chance. If they didn't…

"Snap out of it, Paine. Remember who you're talking about here." I grumbled aloud, noticing the blush my cheeks were making.

There was no chance in this life that I'd be with Gippal. We were friends and my heart was with Nooj. Besides, just looking at his track record told me that I'd end up killing him if we ever got together. No, he wasn't for me. If anything, he should be with Rikku. Those two seem of a pod and I have to admit Rikku was cute when flustered about the guy. Who knows? Maybe two blondes can make a brain? With a light chuckle, I decided to move on.

At first, I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go. I stood in front of the lift, blankly staring at the door. I could only go up at this point, but where did I want to ascend? It seemed life threw a few of these choices at me. Did I want to go into the depths of the Den of Woe? Did I want to start that first mission with Yuna and ascend Gagazet? Did I want to find out what was under Bevelle? Did I want to know what other secrets were ahead in Via Infinito? Did I have what it took to drop into the Farplane and save the world? Looking away from the lift's doors, I thought about how much Bevelle had affected my life and the lives of my friends. There was so much conspiracy behind its walls and hidden beneath its underbelly. Two years after being betrayed twice, Baralai found his way back to them and even became the new Praetor. Even after all that, he still headed a version of the organization that tried to kill him. I think I admired that determination. Regardless if his impressionable nature would only be preyed upon by those old coots, Baralai was always the most determined of all of us.

After we parted ways, it was our own agendas we started looking into. Nooj, well Shuyin in his form, lashed out at Bevelle and the Yevon teachings by establishing the Youth League. Even if Shuyin was probably behind it, it never struck me as odd because of who Nooj was. Gippal's loyalty to his people and the hidden leader inside his goofy and shallow exterior allowed him to build the Machine Faction and develop that excavations team in Bikanel. As an Al Bhed, he was always fond of technology. He told me once that his ultimate dream would have been to rebuild the Machina Cities of Old Spira, though he knew it was impossible. I think the Machine Faction was his move at trying to get that done. Meanwhile, I shut myself out. Nooj's betrayal left me broken and much more so than either of the others. I'd say it was a stroke of luck that I ended up with the Gullwings. But of all of us, only Baralai was compassionate and steadfast enough to stay with the lie and try to work at it from the inside. Baralai stayed with what Spira was told to believe for generations, knowing it was completely fabricated by then and tried to give it a fresh start. It was quite admirable.

"But does that mean me and…" I started to say before the lift door opened.

Getting on, I decided I'd go to the deck. If I was right, I wanted to be there with my thoughts. When the doors opened, I saw him, sword in hand and gliding effortlessly in the wind. The speed of each maneuver and the gentleness of the follow-throughs made it seem as though he was a warrior in complete inner peace even while utilizing a tool meant for fierce and unrelenting war. Aside from the fluid motion of each strike, there were no rough transitions between them either. Each move seemed to have a distinct need to join into the next, though he could change that move at a whim without any notice. Still, though it was completely graceful, it also reminded me of the harsh power behind it. When we were in the Farplane with that graceful performance as our enemy, there wasn't anything we could really do to stop him. It took Yuna having Lenne in her to finally stop him. I couldn't help but feel helpless facing him.

Maybe that was why I broke down when he came back again. We couldn't beat him before and it took Lenne and nearly dying to get him to stop. If he had come back to cause trouble again, we didn't have Lenne anymore. What would stop him then? I wouldn't admit this out loud to the others, but I was truly shaken when I saw him again in Besaid. Wretched memories I thought I was finally free from came flooding back. Dread poured out, but I had to be strong so I swallowed it and kept sucking it down each time I had to look at him until I just couldn't anymore. What was worse, Rikku was infatuated with him and chose to take the Celsius with him to Gagazet alone. I tried to stop her because I was so afraid of what he could do to her, just like what he had done to me, but she went with him anyway and I lost my calm.

But now… I can't feel it anymore. I don't see this Shuyin like the one that shot me as the Nooj I cared so much for. This Shuyin was a tortured soul, too, plagued by his own "Shuyin"s and wanting out. I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I think there was a kindred spirit in him now. I turned into this Paine, so alone and distant, because of what he'd done to me. He had it just as bad, though, actually worse. Trapped in those memories for so long without the Gullwings to slowly bring him back from the brink. I've started seeing what I could've become in him and I guess I pitied him. And he was stronger than me. I was shot by the person I cared about most. I guess that doesn't really compare to having your home and all your friends butchered in front of you only to fail at the final moment as the ultimate capitalization. I felt for him. I think maybe even…

The Celsius' broadcast alarms went off and Brother's voice came over the speaker, alerting us to come to the bridge immediately. I turned to call for Shuyin, but he was already next to me, nodding his head for us to hurry.

"You guys better get a move on, ya? These pyreflies got us all stuck in here." One of the Aurochs said from the Comsphere he managed to pluck from the hut.

"You're leaving out some important details there, buddy." The dream hollered, leaning down to get in better view of our comsphere.

"Do you know who is causing the pyreflies to behave in that way? Have you seen him?" Yuna asked from her seat.

"No, the doors of the temple just closed on us, ya? Then, these pyreflies started flying all around the walls and doors. We can't touch it with them around." He answered.

"Don't worry. My other half won't harm them if he knows we're coming." Shuyin stated, going over to Buddy to have him navigate the fastest route from the Calm Lands to Besaid.

"You guys just hang on, alrighty?" Rikku yelped, hopping to the other side of Yuna, "We'll be there as soon as we can!"

She took off right after that to where Shuyin was and the two began talking strategy while I was left on the sidelines of both conversations. Seeing those two together all the time made me feel… Yea, right, like I'd be feeling something like that. I took to keep with Yuna and the comsphere, standing behind her chair with my arms folded. The pyreflies were reminiscent, too. At the moment, the Besaid Temple resembled the Den of Woe incredibly, pyreflies swirling around angrily with wails that would disturb the most stoic of warriors.

"Don't let it get to you." A voice interjected, breaking me from my trance at the comsphere.

Turning my head, I noticed Shuyin was standing next to me, arms folded just like I had done. It was noticeable and obvious that I jumped at that, but I tried my best to maintain my composure.

"Your old pyreflies only piss me off. There's nothing that can make them 'get to me'." I said in retort.

"Good. Keep it that way." He plainly replied, "Otherwise, your chance at vengeance might be missed."

I was taken aback with a blush that I immediately hid by turning away with a grunt, "You just better stay out of my way when I'm carving him up!"

"I'll keep that in mind. How long?" He returned, turning his attention to Brother immediately after.

"We being there soon! Don't give your horses holdings." Brother haphazardly answered him, struggling more with the language when anxious.

By the time we reached the Besaid village, everything was in flames. Shuyin, Rikku, and Yuna quickly changed to Black Mage and squelched them with Watergas aimed into the sky. Shuyin reverted quickly, Yuna and Rikku stayed to cast a few more Waters to make sure the fires were all out. I saw Shuyin fiddle with his sword, but decide not to unsheathe it. What did he sense?

"Looking for me?" His voice purred, but the origin was from nowhere in sight.

"Oh, just get your ass out here so I can beat you senseless already." Our Shuyin shouted into the air.

An odd strum echoed throughout the village and a tree planted itself behind us. From the back appeared a person in robes, his face hidden by a large straw hat. As he cleared the tree, he slowly lifted the hat and revealed his menacing face, a near Cheshire grin emblazoned on it, accented by two glowing blue pearls decorated in war paint.

"Cheesy entrance. I give it a 2.1." Our Shuyin said as a lazy reply.

"What's this now? You aren't getting bored of me, are you?" Dark Shuyin returned, "Besides, I have to pay you back for last time."

"You got what was coming to you, jackass!" The dream growled.

"What the star said." Shuyin continued, pointing over a thumb at him, "But to cut to the chase, why don't you just crawl back into that cave I ditched you at and leave well enough alone before I have to shove another Flare up your ass?"

"Yea, well, two can play on borrowed skill. What do you say? Bushido?" The shadow purred.

"Why are we still talking again?" I finally added, "Chapter's not long enough?"

"He started it!" The dream responded.

"Let's go! Y!" Yuna shouted, readying her staff.

"We'll rock his world! R!" Rikku yelped, doing a stretch before changing to Gun Mage.

"Shut him up, send him packing. P!" I said, lifting my sword and getting in position.

Shuyin walked out in front and extended his left out to the side, looking at us before turning back to him, "Bushido it is."

With that, he activated The End's Samurai dressphere. White light draped across him like silk and cherry blossoms fluttered around it, swirling down from the sky. When the silk shroud fell away, Shuyin was adorned in shimmering armor, crimson guards and ebony plates lining every inch of his person. As the cherry blossoms all fell to the floor, he looked up and hovered one hand over the scabbard housing his katana.

"One… on one." He added, glancing back at us again.

"One on one my eye!" Rikku screamed, locking her gun on the shadow.

"He wants you to fight alone!" Yuna added.

They were all about to advance, but the look Shuyin gave me before, what he said to me on the airship, it told me not to overreact with him like Shuyin had before. There was no point in ending it quickly if it could jeopardise the others. Shuyin's unkempt anger sent him after us, after Spira before and after Bevelle before that. Each time, it cost him. He knew we were all starting to hate Dark Shuyin the same way and rush in to make the kills, but Shuyin had been very manipulative on his own accord. It was a sure bet his crueler unsent self, now devoid of his warped compassion, would only utilize it further. Right now, it held a few of Besaid's people as hostages in the temple, surrounded by pyreflies he could control at a whim. If we didn't accept his challenge, he could use the trump card and we'd only hate him more. Also, Shuyin was right. He did seem desperate now that Seymour was defeated and he wasn't drawing on Shuyin's self-hate anymore. And there was one more reason he silently shared with me.

"No interferences. Shuyin's got to fight for his lost honor." I said, sticking my sword out ahead of the lot when they went to attack.

"But that's exactly what…" Rikku tried to whine.

"That's exactly what he wants, I know. But we have hostages in the temple, Rikku. What do you think Dark Shuyin'll do to them if we don't abide?"

"Listen to her, Rikku. And besides, who said it's only what he wants?" Shuyin commented, presenting both of us with a sly glance before returning to his position.

Before any of us could blink, Dark Shuyin dashed and closed the gap between them, a strike thrust out at our Shuyin. With a quickdraw, Shuyin blocked the attack and held his dark half at bay. Recoiling, the shadow tossed the scabbard he attacked with back toward the tree and unveiled three kozuka, which he would throw two of in quick succession. Shuyin deflected each, then caught the unsent's arm as the third kozuka came down on his head. With a stiff kick, he pushed Dark Shuyin back to his original spot.

"Ooh, so professional?" He cooed, kneeling down to greet Daigoro as it appeared beside him.

"Let's see you handle my pet, then. You remember him, right? You skewered him on the tip of your sword, the last time." He noted, looking up, "Trista was always a pathetic summoner, wasn't she? Couldn't even control this sad lump of an Aeon at first; couldn't unlock its full potential even when she died."

"She was her own nemesis." Shuyin calmly suggested, "She thought too highly of herself and all her minor successes."

"Not like you or me, eh?" The unsent glimmered, "We were always oh so clever. When we took this Aeon, we controlled it with an iron fist. But if I recall correctly, it was still far from anything remarkable."

"I wasn't interested in style then. You were only interested in the kill. I'd say we were each other's greatest adversary, as well, but it'd be too redundant."

"Now… I'm free."

Daigoro leaped up at Shuyin as he made a strike to slice it apart, but it suddenly exploded into a cloud of pyreflies, revealing the katana Dark Shuyin was using before. With a mind of its own, it began attacking as Shuyin defended itself. From afar, I saw Dark Shuyin unsheathe his wakizashi and lunge for Shuyin.

"Look out!" I shouted.

Rikku was about to make a move, but I held an arm out to her chest to hold her back. Shuyin locked with Daigoro and pushed to the side, blocking for both before allowing their combined attack to push him back. It would keep like this for a while, Daigoro's new form as a disembodied daito and the Yojimbo'd Dark Shuyin attacked in sync, but Shuyin managed to block every hit. Eventually, I could see the odachi in his hands pulse and he stepped into a power stance. Daigoro struck the weapon dead center and sparks flew from the impact. It was then the pulsing spread to Shuyin's body and he would break the lock and lurch quickly forward, making a vertical slice at the sword. The clash was made with a loud snap and Daigoro pulsated until it shattered into tiny fragments of metal. Dark Shuyin was visibly daunted, but pulled more kozuka to throw. Each one was deflected again and Shuyin pushed on. Dark Shuyin released wakizashi again and Shuyin parried and disarmed him with another stiff kick.

"Okay, you're good." The unsent grinned, wiping his lip with a hand.

Standing straight, Dark Shuyin closed his eyes and held out his hands. A green and blue smoke began to exude out of them and spread in a straight line, linking between them and pushing out on either side. Dark Shuyin grabbed the smoke, revealing another scabbard and daito, this one heavily adorned with runes. Unsheathing it, he tossed the scabbard to the side and set the weapon in side stance. Meanwhile, Shuyin shifted to adopt a more offensive stance, stepping forward with his foot to lock himself into place, the katana's luster emanating in the light and he held it overhead. Without warning, the unsent flew towards him, taking only one step in between to start off a spin, cherry blossoms appearing as if cut from the air by the Zanmato in his hands. Shuyin didn't even budge, his eyes simply fixed on all of his dark half's movements. Following the final chord of the spin, Dark Shuyin let out a roar and collided the Zanmato into Shuyin's neck, the force of the blow sending dust and cherry blossoms into the air.

For a while we waited for the air to clear without any sign of an outcome, but it was easy to see everybody was anxious. When two figures became clear in the fog, I heard the sound of a sword hitting the ground and strained to see whose it was. Dark Shuyin gasped for breath as pyreflies streamed from him, returning him to his pure form. Yojimbo had been defeated. Looking up at our Shuyin, he revealed himself to share the same look we all had about us.

Shuyin's eyes were gentle, yet cold, "His spirit still guides me, flows through my being. What is your borrowed talent good for against that?"

Sheathing the odachi, he locked it in place and turned from his opponent. The unsent could only grimace in anger and frustration, taking off again.

"Takuma, I can never carry out your last request, but maybe I can still find my own way. Your teachings will guide me to them." Shuyin whispered, reverting back to his original form.

**Author's Note:** Takuma, remember him my old readers? Yes, he told Shuyin not to shoulder the weight of the world and be disappointed about failing. As a self-claimed empath, Shuyin has already decided he can never accomplish that task, but Takuma's other teachings, his mentoring could still prove useful to him. Perhaps with the acceptance of his new life, Shuyin might find a new way to deal with the situation at hand and succeed where he faltered last time. Can he truly bring his story to a satisfactory end?

At this point, I'd wonder what everyone thinks those unsents' motives are. After all, there have been a few blatant clues and Shuyin's not getting any younger. We're getting closer to the end, though it still has a while yet to go. Still, by 36, the number that ended Eternal Love, there will be a major turn of events in this story followed by its final arc. Stay tuned to find out! ^_~


	30. Of SusanoO and Yamato

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Just to warn you lot, huge chapter up ahead, broken into three. =p

Last chapter, Shuyin honoured his mentor's memory and bested the shadow. Little by little, the true intentions of the shadow are being realised, but there are many factors still left unaccounted. What is the next step for our villains and what, in the end, is the overall scheme? Paine seems to have accepted Shuyin as an ally and is wholeheartedly ready to face the threat with the new team. The sides are drawn and the protagonists seem to have the advantage. What do our former lead characters make of it, though? Can their adversaries find any doubts left to exploit?

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 29: (Part I) The Persistence of Love**

Tidus

This recent turn of events really didn't thrill me. Besaid was attacked twice now and the first time was very personal. At least, we found out that Wakka had taken Vidina and Lulu to an Herbalist in Kilika for some better potions to treat her wounds and had stayed there for the moment to show Vidina the neighboring island. That brought me some comfort knowing that my friends, especially those two who were so close to Yuna, weren't a part of this episode.

After Dark Shuyin left, the pyreflies covering the temple disappeared, too, from what Letty said, back down through the cloister. Yuna told me that Shuyin was able to control the whole Farplane when he went crazy so it figured his remaining bits could do the same. But that was a big problem. It meant even the people in the Farplane might be at risk down there, or at the very least, that this guy had a limitless supply of pyreflies to help him out. Really, our only comforting notion was that Yuna beat this guy before and now we had one of them with us for more backup.

_"I can do it." Shuyin said after his dark half left us._

_"You sound sure." Paine followed very close after._

_"You can thank Rikku here for my renewed confidence." He replied, "I can do it. We can put an end to both of them, figure out what's been going on, and then we'll all get on with our lives."_

_"That sounds like a fairytale." Yuna muttered, walking towards the Celsius._

_"Yuna…" I started to say, putting a hand out to reach for her._

_"Fairytales are always nice." Shuyin continued for me, "We'll finish this once and for all. This will be the last calamity we're forced to endure."_

But even I didn't believe that. The destruction of Sin was my only goal back then. The moment I came from my own Zanarkand, my peaceful life was over. It was after I arrived on Spira that I saw how horrible the world really was, one conspiracy after the next and lies on lies while in front of it all was a huge monster storming through everything it wanted. Lives were lost almost like an expectation. Even after killing off that Seymour, things didn't change. We avenged Jyscal Guado and saved Yuna from entering a marriage with psycho boy, but there was still Sin, and then Bevelle itself. More death and destruction, then more sadness, and the end of Isaaru's stint at being summoner were what followed that happy moment with us stuck in Via Purifico. Oh, and after all that, I find out that to save Yuna would mean to die myself because it would end Sin forever and also end the dream world I came from. I made up my mind to go for it for Yuna's sake, but even that wasn't the end of it. I disappeared off the face of Spira, but Yuna had to go through more ridiculous moot. It ended up getting me back in the fray and we both expected that to be it, all of us actually. And no, this came right after. More Seymour, more death, and nothing that looked like an end in sight. Did I even think I could consider Shuyin's hopeful words to be true anymore? Maybe it'll just have to end bloody.

"Our latest recordings show an abnormality in the Macalania Woods area. It's very faint, though. Maybe it isn't the guy, but…" Buddy reported to us a few hours later.

"Why take the chance? Besides," Shuyin continued, "It still is a pretty place, isn't it?"

I turned my attention to the guy and eyed him curiously. What was he trying to get at? "Let's get going then."

Shuyin looked back into my eyes with a strange look, "We'll split up when we get there. Smaller groups could scan the area quicker and we'll still be close enough to regroup if the shadow really is there."

Smaller groups at a time like this? What was he thinking? He was sort of right about that tactic. After all, Dark Shuyin was running scared. We could all see it even with his terrorizing the populous methods. Then there was that other problem to deal with, but he was weak and conniving so far. The thing that worried me was why all this was going on now. If Areth was around so long, he could have resurfaced with Shuyin when Yuna was taking him on before. At that point, wouldn't that have made Areth an ally? Besides, he was only around as an unsent because he hated the guy so when Shuyin went back to the Farplane the first time, why wasn't Areth sent by that? What was really going on here?

"We'll be in Macalania soon. Focus." Paine commented, tapping a shoulder into me and gazing at me from the corner of her eyes.

"Did we pick groups yet?" I asked to change the subject.

"Do you really need to guess at that?"

She pointed to Rikku following Shuyin to and fro and I instantly noticed Yuna's eyes on me from her seat at the database. Paine walked over to where Buddy sat and began talking about paths while Shuyin focused on the map globe, talking to Rikku about something in a whisper.

_Macalania…_

_We escaped with our skins intact, but Yuna lost something. I could already tell her faith was shaken. Yevon had betrayed her. I felt like I should do or say something-anything... But nothing came. I was just as lost as she was._

Landing in Macalania, Shuyin and Rikku would be the first out and, for the first time, I saw that Shuyin was keeping close, too. After we were all off the Celsius, the pairs were set. Walking up the nearest tree, I remembered the past. Two years ago, this was where we settled to accept the aftermath of what happened in Bevelle. This was when we found out that Yevon vouched for Seymour's life even though he was a patricidal murderer and had already been killed and turned into an unsent. This place was where we felt lost about where to go.

"Hey, Rikku…" I started, the young Al Bhed being closer to the tree than I was.

"Think she'll quit her pilgrimage?" Rikku said, telling me that she knew what was on my mind, "Hey, maybe you should go talk to Yunie."

Looking further on, I saw her standing in the center of a beaten path, the same path she'd taken to the spring. Shuyin nodded for the two of us to take that route while he and Rikku would take the opposite path and Paine and Buddy would survey from higher up. As we all left for our areas, there was a chill in the air, the atmosphere felt smothered yet scant. It was dying. The woods that meant so much to me and Yuna were dying.

I walked ahead of her after a while, when the light of the spring began to show through the trees. I took a moment to look at a certain spot right before the water. It was where Kimahri was standing two years ago. We had just gotten out of a bad situation and Yuna wanted to be alone. The stoic ronso kept his distance, but agreed that I should make an attempt at talking to her about things. The news hit her hard and, for me, I just wanted to keep her safe by this point. Yevon was making it quite clear they wanted to keep up the rouse and sacrifice her to bring one more Calm to trick Spira into another hopeful cycle. I didn't want to let her be another tool in their schemes. Nothing would change, nothing would be accomplished, and the girl I gave my heart to would be dead because of it. I couldn't let that happen so I started talking. I wanted to get her off her destiny. I just wanted her to be safe.

"Suteki da ne…" The words echoed behind me.

Yuna walked over slowly, her soft gaze held to mine. When she got close enough, I took her hands in mine and we looked back out into the water. For a while, I fell back into the past, when we were still fresh on our first and most important mission. I wanted to go back there, back before we had this unending struggle of a life, before old enemies came back again and again to pester us.

"Futari te wo tori aruketanara." Yuna continued, her eyes never leaving the spring as mine turned to her.

My eyes started scanning the area, taking a long look at the woods around us. Roots were coming loose from the ground and drying up. The other plants were curling up and crumbling. Bringing my attention back to the beautiful former summoner next to me who was still looking out into the spring, I put a hand under her chin to lift her face up to mine and pressed her lips to mine. The woods would always be special to us even if it would only survive in our memories.

_Suteki da ne_

_Futari te wo tori aruketanara_

_Ikitai yo_

_Kimi no machi ie ude no naka_

_Sono kao_

_Sotto furete_

_Asa ni tokeru_

_Yume miru_

As we separated, her eyes wandered from my lips up to my eyes before she moved into me, pressing her hands against my chest and leaning in. "The woods are dying…" She whispered.

Our moment would be ruined by another intruding voice in the distance, "Ah, but the power of love endures all things."

"Who's there?" I called out, Yuna bringing up her guns as I reached for Brotherhood.

"Just a passerby." The voice replied, letting me see that he was hiding behind a tree to my right, "Unlike you, I've never had any memories here."

"Areth," I growled, "Not like anybody'd want to have memories with you anyway."

Yuna moved uneasily in my arms while Areth drew nearer, saying, "Are you so sure?"

"Yea, you're one of the guys that started that whole Machina War business back then just like those old coots upheld Yevon even though it was just a lie. Who'd want anything to do with you?"

"Stop, he's telling the truth, but I don't want to hear it." Yuna interjected, pointing her guns at the unsent.

"Yes, Trista was a special lady. Did Shuyin tell you about her? Doubtful. I guess he rambled a little of it to that Al Bhed instead and you got your information from her. What did he say, I wonder?"

"Nothing that surprises me now."

"You demonize me too quickly, my dear." Areth purred, taking a few more steps toward us until Yuna fired two rounds at his feet, "You're so taken by the man, aren't you?"

"I've seen the good in him. I'll protect that."

"You think it's that simple, don't you? He was a good man, a man in love with that _Lenne_, and it was only because he was stuck in a cave as an unsent that made him cruel?"

"Yea, we already heard this story. It's ringing in my ears still and you guys are talking it to death." I finally added, readying my sword.

"Well, that's a fact. It's because that's all he'd want you to know. He wouldn't want you to see him for what he truly is. You know about Trista, my dear, but I don't think he's even told you how she died." Areth continued, emphasizing the last part of his statement.

Yuna was visibly taken aback, but held her guns at him regardless, "I don't care about that. I saw the goodness in him from what you yourself showed us in the Calm Lands. You can't hide that!"

"Oh no, of course not. You were unfortunately at that event. No, that was more for Shuyin, to show him how far he'd fallen." Areth pressed on, this time Yuna not firing to stop him, "You've seen it, haven't you? That's why you're not shooting anymore. You want to know the truth?"

"Like we'd trust any of your words anyway!" I shouted, dashing to him and swinging for his head.

Brotherhood passed through and he was gone, but I could still feel him. From the clash we had before, I knew he couldn't be trusted. He was crooked even in a single lock between our swords. There's no reason any of us had to listen to a thing he said, but Yuna was already troubled by it.

"And she should because she knows better." His voice echoed again, though he stayed hidden from me, "Let me tell you; let me enlighten you. Trista died because of your new friend. Well, it was a special situation, but the things he did just doesn't fit your happy picture of what he was like back then, does it?"

Pyreflies came out of the surrounding crystals and started circling around me, Yuna warning me about them too late for me to react. Areth appeared behind me, but caught my arm when I turned around to attack. Looking at me with that same creepy smile, his pyreflies swarming all over.

"Alright, you've got me. What…"

"He tried to kill her, you know. The man you are with is a known mass murderer, a real head case." He said, letting go of my arm and walking a few steps into the distance, "I would keep a watchful eye."

With that, the swarm fled and so did he, swept out by them. Meanwhile, Yuna came up to my side as I could only look on. He was lying, right? That or he was spinning the story, but there was no chance what he said was legit. I would've been confident in believing that, too, if Yuna wasn't looking up at me with worried eyes. What was going on?

**Chapter 29: (Part II) Unlikely Alliances II**

Shuyin

Rikku and I hadn't turned up anything on our route and when we found Paine and Buddy, it was clear that nothing turned up. By this point, it was obvious I wasn't one to be relieved by that. The Celsius sensors found a signal here and each time it did, we found an enemy in the vicinity. This couldn't be any different and I wasn't about to let another "incident" hinder my chances at staying. I had a new home waiting for me once this blemish was taken care of and I was going to finish it and move on with my life.

We would discover Yuna and the other me returning from their path and met them back at our starting point. While I found it normal for Yuna to be relatively silent about things, the other guy not uttering a word got my attention quite easily. While he had his serious moments, they weren't without due cause and this wouldn't be much different. They found the anomaly. They found one of those two and the conversation wasn't good.

"Hm, if it's nothing, then what's with the blush, Dr. P?"

Looking to my right, I saw that Rikku had taken to pestering Paine about some topic I hadn't been of a mind to eavesdrop on, unlike me, but nobody in this group ever picked out slights. The conversation that I was aware of by then did provide me with enough cover to get an idea moving. I needed to make sure we weren't moving forward in doubt. Doubt, I knew, was a vantage point for the shadow. I knew it because it had always been a vantage point for me, too.

"Hey, what is going on with you two?" Yuna interjected, walking closer to Rikku and Paine while Buddy went back aboard the airship.

They began making idle conversation, my interest only peaked at seeing the faintest of blushes on Paine's cheeks, which my other half was far more intrigued by thus waking me from my own bemusement. Moving on, I stepped closer toward him and took surprising notice that he had already turned his attention to me. Was he developing the sense of awareness on his own?

Putting my concentration on the task at hand, I walked over and said, "Hey, let's talk," and took him aside, back along the same route he and Yuna had taken.

Amusingly, rather than leading him, it almost felt as though he was hoping to speak with me himself. Once we were out of visual range of the others, he grabbed my arm more forcefully, though he immediately loosened once he realized what he had done. Surely a sign, I figured he'd seen one of them and they'd plagued his naive mind with something. While it was one of the innocent characteristics I had lost to grow up for Yu Yevon's war, but it was a cost I grew to resent and therefore respected it in him. Now, I needed only protect him from succumbing to the same events that lost it for me and eliminate them from happening again. At the moment, that meant I needed to build his firm stand like he showed with Seymour. Fortune was with us when the former Maester was around as my better had personal enmity for him. Areth and the shadow were more coercive and only had my word to say they were the antagonists of this episode.

"I wanted to…" I began.

"I know. I think I do, too."

Taking me by the arm again, he led me to a brilliant spot that reminded me of… well, something I probably shouldn't have been reminiscing over with a man, but the memories still flooded anyway until… "So I know you were in the Machina War, but did you tell us everything?"

"Which one of them was it?" I immediately asked, looking into the water.

"Did you tell us everything?"

"No, of course I haven't. Listen, there were a lot of events that occurred back then and a great many of them weren't proud moments." I told him, "I'm sure either of them could have told you that. I'd assume it was about how 'shadow' I was before I died."

"You'd know."

"I would and I can honestly come forward with it now, especially now when we can't afford doubts." I said, turning back to him, "I'm a murderer. I'm a horrible murderer and I've killed in vengeance without remorse in the act only to come out of that violent trance to regret what I'd done. You want to know the only difference between the me before and after death? That regret. That is the me you're speaking to right at this moment. The shadow is the part of me that killed and maimed for the sake of malevolent glee. To be honest, I'm surprised you don't have at least an inkling of it, but perhaps you're the improvement on the original."

He was not amused, "Yea, so it was all true?"

"Yes."

"You know, Yuna seemed shook up from hearing it."

"Kid, she was probably afraid you'd take it the wrong way. When I was unsent, I deliberately showed her the worst of my past."

"And you did that because…"

"Listen, your head has to be clear, understand?" I stated, firmly grasping him by his shoulder as my eyes glared hard into his, "I know you're scared for Yuna. I know because I was there. Bevelle, Machina War; I was there. Takuma was right. I let Lenne take away my focus and I ended up failing her anyway."

"I'm not too sure it's Yuna that's fogging my mind." He replied, his eyes fixed on me.

"Fine, clear those thoughts away, too. It's not going to be useful in the coming fights if you're still worried about me… again."

The conversation would end there, though it wasn't like looking at me from the corner of his eye the rest of the night wasn't enough of a clue that it hadn't ended there. As I had said my peace and needed to concentrate on just what those two were scheming, I pushed that potential chink in the party aside and allowed Rikku to distract me. My thoughts traveled to the future and what the shadow had left and exactly why Areth had chosen to return, if he had any coherent motive now as an unsent. The shadow had pulled cheap maneuvers with the Aeons like I had done in my stint as a sociopath. It just stemmed into an original path by combining the Aeons with things, our first clue having been Anima's Aeon-fiend forms. The "Byakko" was the next example of this, but the latest one had it combine an Aeon with itself. So far, we'd forced it to expend the Anima it shared with Seymour, then Ixion, Shiva, and Trista's Special Aeon. That still left Ifrit, Valefor, Larea, and Bahamut. I knew the dragon would be used last as any Shuyin would have to deem it a last powerful stand, but the other three could be used in any sequence. At the moment, the best bet would be if it possessed Larea again. As a fayth, she'd have some control of herself despite possession and I may be able to help her restrain it for us to defeat.

"And then there's Areth." Rikku started suddenly.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked of her.

"You've been babbling for a while after I made that joke." She replied.

"Is it just me or have the tables suddenly turned?"

"Oh, that's fun." She said excitedly, jumping to her feet, "Do I get to tease you about being cute then?"

And so we left Macalania and headed for Besaid on the Celsius to wait until further developments arose. Rikku continued to pester me about my slip earlier and I indulged her glee. It had been some time since I allowed myself to be a true human and I now fully accepted my rebirth. I would not lose my life this time. This time, I would finish it right, I will find Lenne, and I would solve this plight once and for all.

While still en route to Besaid, I managed to gain my still needed distance from the lot, from Rikku, and stood on the deck of the Celsius looking out at the rising sun. Regardless of grievances, doubt, or concern for what might be in the end, the sunrise was my hope. My new life had begun and it would glow. For the moment, I needed only concentrate on that. In keeping with that, my next move was to formulate a plan and we had two enemies that were enemies themselves. This could play a vantage point for us, but we'd need to learn how to use it. Thus far, the two had only arrived on their own and there were no overlaps. Somehow, if we could bring those two together, I knew we'd find an ally in either. The better choice would be as Rikku had attempted before, to convert my other half. Seeing Areth about should bring back the same memories of hatred and rage that fueled me into becoming it and, truly soulless or not, it couldn't deny its origins. On the other hand, Areth's bitterness towards me should be equally deep and seeing the end result of his last bout with me, perhaps he'd want to defeat that which defeated him first. If I knew his arrogance, he wouldn't consider me a threat to him now, a typical human against an ageless unsent, but the shadow, the one that nearly destroyed us all, that might raise his sense of mortality. However, I had less experience with this Areth than I did with my dark self. The shadow was a completely free individual from who I had been in life. What was an Areth without his inhibitions? What drove him and what did he fear? Therefore, our best outcome would be the shadow. Also, it was profitable for another reason that I would not admit to myself just yet.

As the choice was my other, the idea came back to Aeons. It was clear that was what he was targeting and I already had it in mind that Larea would be the best choice when we acted on that scheme. When I was an unsent, she was the one who tried her hand at coercion and reasoning hardest. It would stand to reason that she would also be the one to contemplate and consider the same in reverse. While she stalled, we could subdue her host.

"But I will not be possessed again." Larea's voice echoed throughout the open space.

"That's a pity." I simply replied aloud, "I figured you were our best shot at ensnaring the shadow."

"You were wrong." She stated as her body slowly formed out of an approaching mist of pyreflies.

"Well, if you're not going to even take part, I can surely see that. Still, this leaves us with the dilemma of just how else we could do it."

"You were wrong about my power to undermine your dark side. I have doubts that I could contain myself should he take over."

"You don't give yourself enough credit."

"Neither have you. How much freedom did I have when last you possessed me? Your mad rage is something not even the strongest fayth can fight. This is why you became such a problem for us before."

"An oversight then. Fine, so what might you suggest we do to quell the storm?"

"Perhaps…" Larea tried to suggest before current events pulled us both away.

Yuna came on the speakers, "Shuyin! Hurry down here! We've discovered a new signal!"

Nodding to my friend as she faded back into pyreflies, I headed back to the lift and took it down to the bridge. Upon my arrival, Rikku greeted me with a bodily roadblock. Catching her, I proceeded with her to where Brother had gathered the others.

"There are new signal therein Bevelle! It isn't can be confirmed who we are being fighting, though." Brother tried to announce, making outlandish gestures in a failing attempt to compensate for his poor speech.

Together we headed off to the city that had become a focal point of climactic battles as of late. If everything went accordingly, my dark self would be our signal and we'd be able to vanquish at least one nemesis. The trip to Yevon's capitol was boring and long. Not a single person wanted to talk about the impending fight or its consequences. It was hard enough to predict just what a disturbed mind such as what mine used to be could come up with let alone how difficult it would be to defeat. Still, if everyone was scanning the scars of battles past, they'd hold back an all-out offensive and any weakness on our part would be an opening for him and we were at a crucial moment that couldn't afford mistakes.

"Listen. This is Bevelle. There is a good chance we know the Aeon the shadow might use or the reason why Areth might be there." I exclaimed to the group, "There can be nothing to hold us back. We go in, we fight our hardest, and send whichever one it is to the Farplane. This is a good opportunity for us, but it is extremely dangerous all because of location. Either one of them choosing Bevelle means they are desperate and praying for salvation. That makes them worse than ever. They will try anything to save themselves because they already know fighting us directly can't work. Have you all got that?"

For a while, no one would make a sound. They were all too frightened of eventualities and doubtful of their own capabilities against an enemy that had haunted them so long… and who's countenance had just openly commanded them into war.

"When we overcome the threat, I will send it. I promise." Yuna finally replied, breaking the silence.

"You know my sword could always use the action." Paine added.

"Good. We're here." I told them, turning around.

Outside, Bevelle's towers greeted us with matching reds to the Celsius and Brother began to bring us down. Suddenly, the entire airship was rocked backward by some gush of force, the resulting thermals strong enough to lift the ship upward. When I regained myself, I heard Rikku gasp and approached the screen. A short distance away, the central spire exploded in streams of blue light, debris flying everywhere as if a rain of stone. I grabbed Brother and shoved him into his pilot's station, ordering him to take us to it. As we neared, both myself and my better distinctly identified wailing and dying fiends being ensnared by the streams and broken down into pyreflies.

On collective instinct, we all rushed to the deck to get a direct view of what was occurring. Below us, Bevelle's central spire displayed an enormous chasm filled only with the light. The captured pyreflies began swirling about the light, seemingly being absorbed into it. Eventually, the amorphous figure rose to the airship's altitude, a smaller figment darkening a portion of it at the top. As the blue light dimmed, the smaller shape came into focus, revealed to be our intended target, my dark half.

"It's amazing what a little elbow grease and jumbled fiends can make, isn't it? Say hi to the newly-refurbished heavy-upgraded Valefor." It mused.

Valefor?

"You monster!" Yuna gasped, eyes welling with tears.

"What'd you do?!" Her love growled, pulling the former summoner to him.

"How could you?" Rikku added, shaking her head in disbelief.

I knew a part of them had to have hoped this creature was still in some way me, but what they never considered was how cruel I could be without the inhibitions of my heart and soul. Turning Valefor into this polycephalic abomination was hardly a creative notion for the me without compassion.

"He could because he doesn't care. He doesn't care about anything. It's what I fooled myself into believing when I committed all those atrocities." I sternly stated, my eyes never leaving the living nightmare that the shadow was.

Yuna came up to my side, "What's our move?"

"We fight." A voice cooed from behind.

Pyreflies descended onto the deck of the airship and took the form of my old nemesis, "We show them we're not afraid."

I glared at him as he gazed over to me, "Isn't that what our brave hero always says?"

**Chapter 29: (Part III) Of SusanoO and Yamato**

Tidus

From worse to even worse. Seriously, it was like we were in a vid game and some random guy was having a good time turning our lives into plot twists. The evil version of Shuyin Frankenstein'd himself a super Valefor with four heads and just as we were going to get at it, Areth added himself in.

"Okay, Shuyin and I can take care of the unsent faster ourselves. You guys go after that thing and we'll come help as soon as we can!" I shouted, already on my way to Areth.

"By the way," I heard Shuyin's voice behind me, gloating, "this thing over here's got the combined oversouls of a few old friends: Chac, Evrae, even the Master of Despair itself. Valefor, aren't you looking ever more useful at last. Rather _major_, like a Major Numerus."

Stopping in my tracks, I turned just in time to see Dark Shuyin deliver the punch line, "To account for the heads."

It was safe to say we were all dumbfounded by his show. The guy was completely off his lid taking all of this as a joke. Shuyin told us he was dangerous, but it was difficult to keep that in mind with our enemy cracking jokes and making puns. Areth took advantage of that, firing a shot straight at my head. Shuyin leaped in front at that point, deflected the bullet, and kept moving. He was the only one who wasn't affected and was mission-bound to go after Areth. Right at the start, he accelerated into Slice & Dice speed and went to work, but Areth was ready for that. Sticking his arm out to the side, his one sword shattered into a dozen shards at the first strike. The shards then took on a life of their own and ran interference on all the following strikes Shuyin made. At the end, the damaged shards turned into pyreflies and gathered to reform the original sword. I took my turn then, cartwheeling into a flip and hitting him with Spiral Cut.

Rather than block, though, he just stood there and took it. At first, his body looked to be sliced cleanly in two, but he popped into a cloud of pyreflies and I couldn't see anything for a while. A short while later, the cloud cleared, but I found myself in what I could only say was the Farplane. In the distance, I saw what I could only say was Seymour slowly walking towards me. Raising Brotherhood, I took a swing at him only to have it deflected by some kind of invisible barrier. After a few more tries without success, I tried to dodge him and figure out what was going on, but that just took my focus off my footing. Following one more step backward, I felt a weak point in the rocky ledge. Seymour immediately lunged forward to take the advantage, his long fingers stretching out to shove me off completely.

"Get a hold of yourself!" He said, his voice sounding strangely.

Instead of pushing me, Seymour grabbed my arm and pulled me back to stable ground. Looking around, he stalked a few steps forward and away from me. Before I knew it, he pulled his staff on something behind him and made a clash. Pyreflies immediately burst from the staff and we were back on top of the Celsius.

"What happened?" I asked Seymour.

"It's an illusion. Figures a lying and treacherous snake would be granted such a power." Seymour said, his body dissolving until it was a more acceptable source.

"You spoil everything." Areth's voice purred at the far end of the airship, "Lucky for me, it was still good enough to arrange this opening."

With that, I saw the flying hydra lurch from the sides of the airship, splashing across its width to force Shuyin into the air. Looking around, I saw that Yuna and the others were in their Special Dresspheres, but all three looked in bad shape. The fiend was difficult to say the least. Getting over to Yuna, we decided to regroup and corner Areth first.

Each of the girls used their machine to encircle him and prevent him from using his illusion while I charged up for Energy Rain. Again, Areth just stood by and let our plans play forth. When I finished charging, I ran in and kicked off him, sending my bolts of energy all around him. As it accumulated, Areth only watched and dissolved into a stream of pyreflies before the overdrive could hit him. Still, with him gone, we needed to get back to the Major Numeral Uno thing.

I ran over to the edge of the Celsius, but by then I was too late. The warped Aeon already had Shuyin tackling it from the air, playing against the volleys it unleashed at him. From time to time, I saw that Shuyin got a hold of one of the heads and took to standing on the main body, but the tails and heads would be on him too quickly for him to make any effective moves. As he tired, the thing decided to take up more challengers in us and attacked the airship with a pulse of energy.

"What was that?!" I screamed as the airship's surface started to rattle.

"Take cover! The computer's registering it as something called Clione! It…" Buddy alerted from the external speaker, but the rattling got worse and the speaker overloaded.

Slowly, the entire deck started to ripple and white colored pores melted into its surface and began to bubble. Backing away from it, I found the entire deck was coated in the pores. The ship was rattling too much to get to the lift so I really had no options left.

"I've got you!" Yuna said, her Psycher form getting a hold of me before teleporting me off the Celsius.

The next thing I knew, YRP had me, Buddy, and Brother in tow and the entire deck of the Celsius was covered in pillars of blue energy. Having taken all that damage, we could only watch helplessly in the air while it crashed itself into the waters just outside the city below. I knew they would be upset at losing it, but at that moment, Shuyin was by himself on a volatile platform, facing four menacing heads, their respective tails, and a mirror of himself. Whistling, I had Yuna teleport me to Valefor while Paine and Rikku dropped Buddy and Brother off at the wreckage to see about salvaging it. After they came back, Shuyin, Yuna, and I were already on the good part of Bevelle's central tower while Dark Shuyin and his creature from the deep circled around, casting strong spells near constantly. The Psychers took the role of deflecting the attacks using their powerful defenses while Shuyin and I waited for openings.

"When it comes for another pass, I want you to throw me into the air." He finally said as the thing headed back for us.

"Where?"

"Anywhere! It won't matter. Then, get one of the Psycher's to spot you. Wait for my move."

As instructed, I stabbed Brotherhood into the side of the tower and used it for a ledge. Grabbing Shuyin, I waited until I thought the thing was close enough and threw him right at it. My concern was that it would just dodge him and he'd just fall, but while it tried to dodge, Dark Shuyin pulled down alongside to mock the failed attempt. Shuyin took advantage to axe kick a leaning Dark Shuyin, knocking him off the creature and straight down, headfirst, into the pavement below. Quickly, I whistled to Yuna and dove down after the unsent followed closely by the three Psychers. Just before I hit the bottom, Paine froze time for the save and Yuna brought me back out of it. Rikku stayed back and focused all her power to maintaining the stasis field, but we could already see the pyreflies shifting back together. Without another thought, I jumped off a piece of the rubble and signaled that I wanted to go for another Energy Rain. Yuna understood immediately, channeling Entrust to give me her potential, enough for me to charge up the overdrive.

As the pyreflies reformed into the unsent, my bolts of energy surged through the ground and erupted on him. Yuna took the opportunity to shift to White Mage, but before she could start a sending, the pyreflies swarmed back up into the air and to safety. Dark Shuyin escaped us again.

Without much to do, the other two Psychers having exhausted themselves following such abusive uses of their abilities and neither Yuna nor I having a suitable dressphere to take us back up into the air, we were forced to watch the action from afar. From what I saw, the Valefor thing was struggling with our Shuyin, but it was too hard to make out who was winning or how Shuyin was even fighting it.

"What do you think is happening?" I asked nobody in particular.

"The great struggle…" Paine murmured beside me.

"What?"

"It's a tale of Lord SusanoO and the demon Yamato…"

**Author's Note:** SusanoO and Yamata no Orochi is an old Japanese folktale that I drew some concepts from for Shuyin and Areth in my last story. Next chapter, you get a larger explanation of that and perhaps a better inkling as to what the shadow's goal is.

Happy New Year! ^^


	31. Tainted Blood

**Disclaimer**: Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** As the holiday season ends, a new chapter shall be released! When we last left off, Dark Shuyin had conjured something truly wretched, turning the Aeon Valefor, the first Yuna ever received from the fayth, into Major Numerus by merging the super bosses of X-2 to its pyreflies. While the rest of them eventually dealt with the unsent, the new Major Numerus Aeon-fiend was left to be handled by the true Shuyin. Then came a bizarre and mysterious comment by Paine, noting their bout to be something similar to that of Susano-O and the Yamata-no-Orochi. Just what implications did she mean to draw? Is what she feels true and are future circumstances related to this about to unravel?

Speaking of which, this Major Numerus, while derived from the fiend found in the International version of Final Fantasy X-2, it is a further advanced version of it, developed to fit the context of the story. Much like Paragon and Penance before it, I always felt the super bosses of the game that barely had much detail in their in-story purpose should have had some development to them, as well, so this is Major Numerus'.

Lastly, not only do you lot get another chapter of Spira, I've also started on my Ga-Rei fiction so that has been uploaded, as well. For fans of that series, please read and review!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 30: Tainted Blood**

Shuyin

"You see that, Major Numerus? Your so-called master has already thrown in the towel. Left you for bigger and better things. What do you make of that? C'mon, any of you. You know, there are so many of you and you look so similar." I said to the Aeon-fiend between attacks and defenses, "I can't begin to see where the Chac starts and where the Paragon ends. Keeping that in mind, let's just give you all new names. How about you be Unum for one, you can be Duo since you seem like a two…"

Duo lunged forward and attempted to chomp down on me after my remark, but I caught its lower jaw with my sword and let it lift and struggle to get me off it. The other heads began to cast spells the likes of Dark Sky and Meteor, but they were so scattered, more of the attack hit Numerus than it did me.

"Alright, well the brilliant one with the meteor shower I dub Tria in honor of the late great moronic summoner Trista and let's just call you Carrot Top for the red speck you've got on your forehead."

Carrot Top didn't like that as it blasted me with an Ultima. By then, having been tossed around for so long, I was more than ready to use an Overdrive, namely my Force Rain, which let me suck the entire Black Magic spell into my sword. Concentrating the energy, I waited for Duo to lunge at me again before catching it by the fang and pulling myself onto its head. Using its slick hide, I slide down Duo's spine while baiting any of the other heads to me. When Tria did, I loosed control over a small bit of energy, striking it with Spin Cut to force it down, Tria's fangs connecting with Duo's neck instead of mine. Carrot Top and Unum were livid, but their haphazard response of firing elemental spells at me only recharged my Force Rain back to full. Stabbing Tria in the eye, I swung down on my sword and used it to flip myself back into the air.

"You know, this reminds me of a tale. Have you ever heard of the Yamata no Orochi? It was a legendary demon in the shape of an eight-headed snake. It was such a terrible creature that it destroyed everything in the land without need or want. The story goes on that a wayward traveler happened upon two survivors of the beast's terror." I recounted.

After Unum unleashed Venom and Carrot… okay, let's be serious and just call it like it is; the fourth wonder, Quartum, tried to halt my overdrive with a disorienting scrambler ability, both dodged without much hindrance, I continued my story, "They had already lost seven daughters to it and were about to lose their eighth. The traveler contemplated the dire situation for a moment, ultimately saying, 'If this be thy treasure, wilt thou offer her to me?' You see, deep within you lies a friend, one who I wronged in the past. I feel a need to make amends and for that, I must ask for her safe return."

With that, I pointed my saber at the central body linking each of the heads and tails. The blast sent Major Numerus plunging into the floor of Bevelle, right next to where its master had been discarded before. As the streams of Force Rain's power pinned the Aeon-fiend to the ground, I saw my better quickly leap from the balcony of one of the towers, focusing his own Brotherhood at my Overdrive. In the distance, I saw Paine cast a spell and Brotherhood exploded in its own array of light, the streams of my better's Energy Rain enveloping Force Rain and concentrating it. Major Numerus gave one last wail of agony before dissipating slowly back into the muck it rose from. From the smoldering mass, a warm light exited and reformed itself before Yuna. When the two of us made it back to the rest of the group, Valefor's fayth had already taken her leave, grateful for her rescue.

"Well, we didn't get any of our mission objectives accomplished, but we did get a good workout." The Blitz Ace suggested.

"There'll be other chances. In the end, those two are the ones running while we are just waiting for our moment. However, it is troubling that my dark self is strong enough to remold fiends and Aeons, combining them into creatures like this Major Numerus." I stated.

"And we picked up on another juicy bit, didn't we?" Rikku abruptly chimed in.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning to her along with my twin, both of us showing equally puzzled expressions.

"Paine mumbled it before, but nobody knew what she meant so…" Yuna began.

"I think you know exactly what I'm going to say, Shuyin. You did give yourself a good trek inside my head last time." Paine interrupted, stamping up to me with her arms crossed.

"Yamata no Orochi?" I awkwardly answered, taking a guess at what she meant.

It was true that I read through her entire mind when I possessed her in the Den of Woe. Mostly, I cared about her known physical attributes as I was in battle at the time, but it would have been against my nature not to snoop for more data. I amused myself with her infatuation of Nooj and how hurt she had been when he shot her. There were other parts, though, that I denied reading into as they hinted at similarities to me. At the time, I couldn't afford familiarizing with locals. Still, the memory had been glaring at me. Following the incident and her inevitable change into La Femme Nikita, Paine secretly had been looking into redemption. She hadn't really wanted to lose herself and she never really wanted to shut everyone out. Having Nooj shoot her was just a painful event and she couldn't handle it emotionally, be it being young and heartbroken or feeling betrayed that the life she saved almost took hers. Anyway, one of the things she looked into was the legend of the Yamata no Orochi and SusanoO.

"Got it in one. Impressive."

"I'm not sure I understand the connection, though. I mean, sure, we just killed big, multi-headed creepy snake thing, but I figure that's it."

"Well, for the fighting, you pretty much hit the dot, but I think there might be more. It would figure that Dark Shuyin could come up with something like making a Valefor into that, but why? You heard him yourself. All of us did. Every step of the way, it wasn't just gloating or seeking revenge on you. It wasn't about proving who was better. Dark Shuyin… I think he needs you to understand him just as much as you need to have him dealt out. Think about the tale of Lord SusanoO. He was banished from the heavens for failing his sister Amaterasu. It was only after he defeated the Yamato and discovered the Tsumugari that he redeemed himself and regained his position." Paine explained.

"Are you saying we're dependent on each other?" I remarked cynically, "I'm sorry, I don't see that being true."

"Well, it's too bad your head's that dense then." Paine shot back, "Each time he's used an Aeon against us, he had some comment for you. It was 'white knight' with Ixion and being a better summoner for Yojimbo."

"You mean it wants me to revert?"

Rikku immediately interjected, "We think Dark Shuyin's goal really is to be whole again. Its pyreflies are a part of yours after all. They are linked to you, but you freed yourself from them."

"We think they are trying to get you back, but on more stable terms, while you were brought back to maintain your freedom from them." Yuna concluded.

"Well, the shadow's part seems about right, but if you were helping me understand my role, I think you simplified it. It still doesn't explain Seymour and Areth."

"Doesn't it? Part of why you're tied to the shadow is that you felt the pain of Spira's people, isn't it? Seymour was one of them and you told me you understood him. Maybe Areth is worried about you succeeding and his own restless spirit finally manifested to keep you from moving on with your life." Rikku suggested.

I did have to admit, it made sense. The many attacks of my dark self were all directed at forcing me to remember and relive bad memories. Areth's motives had been to show the others my wretched past. If both were successful, the hope was that I'd regress once I had no one left to confide in while my old regrets rose back to the surface.

"Alright. I guess that's it. Thank you, Paine. I didn't think we'd get to the answer like this, but I have to say it is one heavy burden I no longer have to think over."

"That takes care of one part of this mess." My better noted, "Now all we have left is the clean up."

"Allow me!"

Before any of us could react, a strong gust struck us and we found ourselves scattered on the floor. Paine was the furthest and therefore first to recover, but a familiar blade came to the offensive instantly. Rikku went to help her, but it had been a trap and the gunblade burst as soon as Rikku touched it with her daggers. Miasma poured from it, rendering both of them unconscious as Yuna switched over to White Mage to dispel it. However, just as she did, a swarm of pyreflies encircled her and began to flood into her.

"NO!" Her love screamed, rushing to her aid.

I had seen this action before, or rather, I'd performed such an action myself. The gunblade made it clear it was Areth, though he'd never tried this tactic before.

"I don't think this will be of any use." I told my other half, coming to his side.

"We have to save her!" He shouted, pointing at the cocoon of pyreflies.

"It's not that easy. We're not… I'm not my old unsent self. I can't prevent this anymore than Yuna could prevent me from possessing Rikku and Paine before. We'll just have to wait and play his game. Hopefully, his goal doesn't involve harming Yuna."

Once Areth had overcome Yuna's will, the pyreflies disappeared inside her. Her eyes were vacant and her form awkward. Unlike my skill when possessing, Areth had never tried to overtake someone with emotion before and Yuna's struggle had him too occupied to make a decent external appearance. Even so, the effect was felt and only worked in Areth's favor.

Weakly looking up, her eyes felt blank despite being directed straight at my better. "Follow, if you want me back alive."

Without much option, we played Areth's game, Rikku clinging to the possessed Yuna as if it would eventually bring her cousin back to her. Meanwhile, my twin stalked Yuna, his eyes making it quite evident he only saw Areth in her place and his rage was building. Paine and I stayed further back, both of us knowing that confidence in me would only wane the further we got. Surprisingly, I found promise in her more than anyone at the moment. Since the duel with Yojimbo, Paine had shown a side to her that she wanted me not to be the one she hated, the one who had robbed her of her normal life. In her, I knew I had the stoic soldier I needed to better Areth's current scheme. As much as I knew Rikku would have liked, Paine was already calculating and predicting where Areth planned to take this ploy of his and how we might do about remedying the consequences. It was her ill-fate born objectiveness that I had used myself when confronting Areth in the past. His methods always involved playing with one's emotions and other forms of subterfuge. At the beginning, I accepted the murky veil, allowed myself to drown in all his flattering and amiable words. However, once his true face surfaced, it was such a simple matter. Just separate fact from fiction and his walls collapse to reveal nothing more than a frail figure, easily snapped and broken.

"You have any suggestions about where he's taking us? Not like I'm tired, but I just polished these boots." Paine grunted.

"Well, judging by how we're hiking around Macalania, my guess would have been the lake, but we passed that a while ago. I have no prospects now."

"Some help you are."

"What's after Macalania anyway?"

"Shouldn't you know this?" Paine asked, taking a few steps in front of me before taking up walking backwards so she could face me.

"Well, it has been over a millennium since I physically came to these parts, let alone hiked about."

"The Thunder Plains, if my geography is right."

"Ah, there might be something to that then. Areth and I have had significant history there, too." I replied and we kept moving.

As it turned out, Areth had been leading us to the Plains. With Yuna still under, he turned her about and had her blank eyes glare straight into my form. For a while, she wouldn't say anything, but the aura surrounding her was filled with vile glee. There were so many reasons to take me here. This was the destination selected by Areth to be an ambush once his cover was blown. It marked a turning point for both of us in the Machina War. It was when he revealed the traitor, Trista, to have been his ally, transferring all of the secrets she could gather on Zanarkand's military defense to our enemy. It was when Jurama perished as a cost of war. It was when innocence died and when the worst of my actions would be decided. This was when I was lost.

"Shuyin, you remember this place, don't you? This place will forever engrave itself as the moment you finally realized I betrayed you, you utter fool." Yuna's voice jeered, "You were so seething and wrathful… chased me all the way out here."

I wouldn't reply. I didn't have to.

"Like somebody else wouldn't have done the very same thing!" The Blitz Ace exclaimed, readying Brotherhood though he still had no target to strike.

"Give back, Yunie! She isn't part of this!" Rikku screamed.

"Oh, but I am. The moment I became a willing martyr who mindlessly believed I was fighting for the greater good, I became part of this. Insects. Tiny little things thinking they mattered more than others for spouting selfless words." Yuna spat.

"Is it that we felt we mattered ourselves or that we were so without self that you couldn't help but to care about us in our stead?" I callously retorted, turning my back to him.

"Selfless you say? So when you attacked us, that was solely for the sake of the greater good? When you slew my brother in cold blood, you had noble intentions at heart?"

"I'm not the one who called me the martyr, Areth. I know my flaws. It was only you who felt I wanted to be the adored hero. Your eyes were always clouded by it, Areth. The shroud of envy, that is."

Areth chuckled lightly at my words causing me to turn to Yuna, "Well then, death be my salvation. See, it had taken me forever to figure this out, but who doesn't aspire to be a hero in the eyes of others? Even I had desired it at one point. However, eventually you grow up and stop thinking about it. You realize how mundane you actually are… unless you're truly self-righteous. Then…"

His pyreflies surged from Yuna's body and enveloped us, changing the Thunder Plains into a darkened room. It had low ceilings and was adorned with extravagant sculptures and paintings warped into eerie phantasms by the surrounding darkness. A small area of light appeared in the distance, seeping out from behind an ajar door. I knew where it would lead, but before I had a chance to deny my former rival, my twin took the liberty to shoot straight through the door and trigger its effect.

"Oh, but Tidus, or should I say… Shuyin… I'm the one that ordered Kai's execution." Areth's voice rang out as I felt myself drawn to my place in history.

Looking through the Blitz Ace's back into a smug Areth's eyes, I took a ragged breath, recalling the confusion I felt then, "You had your own friend… executed? How could you… How could you do that to Kai?"

The scene played forth and I was helpless to those emotions that had claimed me in the past. Meanwhile, the others would watch me turn from a hurt individual, broken at having lost so much only to be betrayed by a friend, to a psychotic zombie ensnared by bloody murder. As I stalked towards Areth's fallen and shriveled wretch of a man, I could literally sense the worried stares from my companions. It was true they had all known me to be a villain, a lunatic who wanted utter oblivion. It was another concept to endure a black-hearted murderer.

At the last moment, I stopped my sword and took the blunt strike to my torso just as I had so long ago. Grabbing my waist in pain, I recalled my grievous wound from the rifleblade only weeks before this event.

"After all those lifetimes, you still can't let go." Areth's voice echoed as Trista's house faded back into the Thunder Plains.

As the waters hit my back, I realized I couldn't move beyond the pain I felt back then. Areth's powers were developing. His unsent skills were reminiscent of his actions in life, that of a conniving snake, a path of deceit and deception. Unfortunately, now the illusions become realistic enough to have literal effect. As I looked around, I saw that the pyreflies were keeping the other back as spectators like Areth wanted them to be. They were helpless at the moment, but I knew Areth was done for now. Looking up at Yuna, I waited for him to vacate her form. Taking her eyes to mine, Areth walked her to me and bent down to pick my chin up in her hand.

With a smirk, she stood back up and turned, "You want this girl back? You know where to find me."

And then they were gone…

**Author's Note:** From the shadow's schemes and general destruction to Areth's next big scheme. Just what is going on and what will be the fate of the former High Summoner? Speaking of which, Areth has finally revealed his own ability to possess others and has even exploited it on Yuna of all people. Could there be some dealings behind the scenes that the group is unaware of? Perhaps they need to take a further look into the course of events thus far to discover a solution to the disturbance of the Eternal Calm. Find out next time as our heroes are forced to embark on another mission to save Yuna. And yes, please feel especially free to voice your feelings about how all this is turning out. Did you see Yuna's possession coming? If not, do you know what I'm planning next? I look forward to hearing from you.


	32. Horrors of History

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** A warning first. This chapter takes some scenes from my previous story's Chapter 27. For my old reader's, you know what I'm talking about. **Graphic violence up ahead.** You have been warned.

To my reviewers, WOW I got some reviews! 8D… Anyway, now that we're beyond that:

Thanks Kazekirin, the Endless Eternal Flames, Pein, the Crying God, and Haruka.

Hehehe, sorry for taking too long, Haruka. If it's any consolation, I am releasing these chapters along with the mini-fiction in Ga-Rei Zero.

Yuna's been captured by Areth. Now our heroes are forced to go and rescue the former high summoner else risk losing her forever. We all know what our favourite blitz ace is going to do, but what else is on his mind? Through the many interventions by Areth, can Tidus actually be his target? What do the others plan to do about it? YRP has seemingly accepted their former foe and want to work towards ridding Spira of its pestilence once and for all, but can this party hold together with all the hooks prying it apart?

**Spira: The Eternal Discord  
Chapter 31: Horrors of History**

Tidus

_"You want this girl back?"_

Yuna was gone… Yuna was just gone… Two year ago, I promised to protect her and keep her alive. A few months ago, she went out of her way to save some moron who was lovesick and now she's just gone…

"Yunie… What are we going to do?" Rikku whimpered, clinging to Shuyin's arm for support.

"Well, we've got a good source of information regarding Areth's motives. Maybe we could consult it?" Paine sarcastically commented, walking over to lean against the computer chair.

"Where do you think we should go first, guys?" Buddy added, trying to change the subject after sizing up the situation, "I'm not really getting any big blips on screen, but each of the cities are showing some activity."

"Yuna is we must found her! Gullwings attention is give me now! We need to go find her quickly soon and send the Areth back packing to Farplane!" Brother screamed, his grammar suffering even more since he was worried and scared for Yuna.

Seeing me, he grabbed me by the collar and yelled something in Al Bhed that I was still unable to hear and Rikku yelled something back that stopped him, though he left for the Engine Room cursing something else in Al Bhed. Rikku would come to my side after that to check on me, but even in a language I could understand, I couldn't hear her. The only thing I really, clearly heard ringing through my head was:

_"You want this girl back?"_

_ "You want this girl back?"_

_"You want this girl back?"_

"… You want her back, right?" My own voice awoke me from the din echoing inside my head and I lifted my head up to see Shuyin glaring at me, his hands on my shoulders.

Without another second, I grabbed Shuyin by the collar and pinned him against the railing toward the back of the bridge, "Of course I want her back! She wouldn't even be in this situation if your old baggage didn't decide to show up and mess up the Eternal Calm!"

"I realize that, I really do. Still, it wasn't my choice to come back and get back into all this nonsense again. You heard it from Yuna herself, I was sent and content with my fate. Even so, even though I was brought back, I'm coming to terms with this life without anyone from my past and I've learned to accept this second chance despite all these problems it's presented us."

"These problems are only here because of you!" Okay, so I wasn't thinking clearly. There's some truth to what I said, though, right?

"Yes, let's keep pointing fingers and get on with the in-fighting. That ought to get Yuna back to safety faster." Paine noted, passing us on her way to the map grid up the stairs.

"… You're right… I'm sorry, I just don't know what I'd do…" I started to say.

"Yuna'll be fine. I'm not going to allow this future to fall into the same traps we fell into back in my time. Nothing'll ever change that way." Shuyin stated, moving forward to the holosphere.

"Where to, big guy?" Buddy asked.

"Omega… Take us to the Thunder Plains. We'll need to get to the entrance to the Omega Ruins. He'll be there. I'm sure."

_"You know where to find me."_

Walking up behind the guy, I asked, "Omega Ruins? What's there?"

"A monster…" And then he would just walk off to the lift.

"Rikku, what's at Omega Ruins?" I asked her, thinking Shuyin most likely told her about it.

"I don't know. Shuyin gets like this sometimes when telling me stories and then he just goes quiet and looks away. It's impossible to talk to him after that. Maybe it was something too upsetting to think about."

While I nodded to her, accepting her answer, my mind had a different response, 'Or maybe it's something he's hiding. He's got a lot of those, too.'

Try as I did not to think about that, I couldn't help myself. After Yuna first told me about what he did as an unsent and especially after seeing just how cruel Dark Shuyin was, I just couldn't honestly believe in a completely reformed Shuyin. What's worse, lately, Shuyin's also acted differently than he did before his freak-out Berserker rampage. He used to be incredibly depressed and serious, always regretting something about his past. After fighting that white tiger thing, he seems to hide more about himself and his past than regretting it. I know that can easily be because he decided he accepted his new life so he wants to bury his past, but to me it also seems like he's trying to keep us away from stuff he knows wouldn't sit well with us. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it and we've been going back and forth with that just way too many times. It's just that I know Areth and Dark Shuyin would love it if our group were to cast doubts again, but with what's been happening, I can't help myself.

"We have arrived in the Omega Ruins. Gullwings…"

"Enough already! We're at Omega Ruins. Got it! C'mon guys, we have to save Yunie!" Rikku cut Brother off, hopping over to the lift where Shuyin was already ready and waiting.

I was the last to approach the lift, Shuyin's glaring eyes never leaving mine. Even after I got on and we were heading down, he kept staring at me, his face in a disturbing scowl as he held his arms crossed. When the others exited, I stayed back as if frozen by him. As I took my first step out, though, he immediately moved in front of me.

"There's something you should probably know." He said, pulling me off the airship.

"What is it?" I asked him eventually seeing as how he was only dragging me to catch up with the others and hadn't followed his words with anything else.

"I… It's something that might come up, but I wanted it to stay buried." He mumbled, still pulling me on.

Paine and Rikku reached the entrance to the ruins and we were hastily making our way there, as well, but Shuyin had been mumbling the whole time. From what I understood of his fast-paced ramble, there was some woman named Trista, who Areth had mentioned himself, that was a rival to Lenne as a summoner, or as Shuyin added in rant, that annoying bitch Lenne finally took a NovaBurst to. After mentioning her death, his tone of voice suddenly dropped a few rungs and his mumble got worse. I only made out that something really really harsh happened between her and him and that it would draw old doubts back about our faith in him, which was already happening with me.

The moment we got to Rikku and Paine, Shuyin and Rikku divided us into two groups to make a faster search and also to lessen the chances of everybody getting caught in Areth's trap.

"So me and Shuyin will take the left and you guys can go to the right. We'll have the coms to keep in touch and Buddy's monitoring us from the Celsius. If you run into trouble, holler right away." Rikku instructed, hopping to Shuyin's side.

"And… be careful. Areth's not the pretty boy he used to be. He's an angry unsent who wants nothing else but to see me suffer… I'm sorry…" Shuyin added, taking Rikku off on their path right after.

"Hey, we should get moving." Paine told me, waving me over and heading off.

Taking one last look at Shuyin's back, I turned and went to catch up with my partner. The tunnels seemed quieter than I remembered. We barely had any fiends follow us, and even then, they didn't attack us on their own. If it wasn't for Paine lashing out at them from time to time, I don't think they would've even caused us any trouble. I would've talked to her about that, too, but part of me was afraid she'd stab first and ask questions later.

After a while, I decided to step in before another poor fiend got to meet Paine, "Hey, what's up with you?"

"They're fiends. We kill them… or so I've heard."

"Yea, but they're not even attacking us. Maybe we should just keep walking, calm ourselves, and you know, maybe ignore them?"

"Don't you think they might be around for a reason? Fiends aren't known for their friendly hospitality." She suggested, pointing at the many eyes staring at us from the dark corners.

"Hey, our mission objective is to find Yuna. Stopping every now and then to kill fiends isn't getting us closer to that." I insisted.

"Whatever. Let's…"

Quickly, I grabbed Paine and pulled her close as I sidestepped an incoming attack. I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing, but it looked like Shuyin was charging right into us, sword in hand ready to swing. A girl was opposite him, her hands held out. She was dressed in almost the same thing Yuna was wearing during her pilgrimage, but the look on her face showed so much pain and anger, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. Meanwhile, Shuyin cruelly pulled to her side and sliced off both her arms. The scream was unbearable… and then they were gone. It had been an illusion, but it was so real.

"Hey, what do you…" I started to say to Paine.

Without batting an eye, she just mouthed a "let's keep moving" and kept walking.

"But…" Still she ignored me, and just pushed past several of the fiends that weren't attacking us.

The way Shuyin and that woman was, I was honestly concerned. Was it for real and if it was, what would possess him to go slicing through her arms like that? Although, Shuyin did say to be careful here and was very worried about something that might happen. Areth's illusions could feel so believable, maybe all of it was made up and Shuyin predicted that the guy might try it.

"Paine, you think this is all just Areth pulling tricks on us?" I asked.

Silence and a quickening step would be my answer. The two of us ended up on the platform where, over two years ago, we fought Ultima Weapon. At first we were alone, even the fiends had decided to stay away, but suddenly, it got dimmer and the temperature dropped by a lot just like it did back when the weapon was around. There was a weird echo that sounded like a person laughing and it slowly grew louder. Paine immediately took her sword into a defensive position and I followed suit. From laughing, the echo turned into someone weeping in sorrow. In the distance, the darkness gave way to the reappearance of that same girl, her hands held at her sides balled into fists as the laughter returned and got louder. Light exuded from behind us and, as we turned, a silhouette appeared, slowly revealing itself to be Shuyin, his face twisted into a really creepy grin as he continued to snicker at the girl.

"Guess you've been chosen as the lamb to the slaughter, eh?" He cackled viciously, steadily approaching the girl like a predator to its prey.

Paine tried to grab me and pull me forward, past the girl, but just as we made it to her side, she lifted her hands and started casting Black Magic at him. Turning my attention back to the scene unfolding before us, I saw Shuyin move at impossible speeds, dodging all the Ultimas and Flares while howling with sadistic glee. This was what we saw before, with Shuyin bounding for her and mutilating her. But just as he was about to reach her, she suddenly hid behind us, her form trembling in terror as her shaking hands clutched onto my sleeve tightly. Shuyin, having stopped in his mad rush because of this, struck a piercing glare right at me, his grin widening as he shifted the blade in his hand. After finding his path, he gripped the weapon tight and dashed toward us, ready to cut us both cleanly in two. Without warning, Paine stepped out from behind me and swung her own sword down, scattering the pyreflies that made up the Shuyin image. Likewise, the girl cowering behind me vanished and the two of us were left in the dark with the surrounding fiends inching closer.

"Let's keep moving." She grumbled, pushing my shoulder as she moved on.

Following the platform was that same long thread of rocky ledges that eventually lead to Omega's platform. As we navigated its climbs and descents, I noticed Paine visibly upset, but I wasn't sure what she was thinking so we just kept moving. Something else that got my attention was the presence that was all around us. I knew I could feel something watching us in the shadows and it wasn't just the fiends that still didn't launch any attack. It had to be Areth, but he wanted us to be seeing that whole thing with Shuyin and that girl before he could be brave enough to show his face.

In the end, my patience wore down and by the platform before Omega, I lost it and shouted, "Okay, enough spying! Get your ass out here now and bring back Yuna while you're at it!"

"Shut it! Have you lost it? We know he's baiting us so let's just keep going. Who knows what he might do to Yuna if we don't let him play out his sick games." Paine scolded, turning back to continue on right after.

I was about to give her an answer, pissed off as I was, but my chance was lost when she ran straight into Shuyin or "Shuyin". At first, Paine dismissed him, but after she realized she couldn't pass through him, she quickly jumped back to where I was and took out her sword.

"You see, the answer lies in whom you fell in love with." "Shuyin" began to say, putting his face extremely close to Paine's, "The treachery of those who betray knows no bounds, not even to love. Isn't that right, Paine?"

After that, his eyes narrowed and focused on the warrior and I could tell she was shaken. Yuna had told me about what Shuyin had done to her before as Nooj who she cared about. Nooj had shot her straight in the chest and she felt betrayed, but then she found out it was actually Shuyin who forced the guy to shoot her and forgave him. Now, even though this was just an illusion of Shuyin created by Areth, those wounds were reopened.

"It'll be okay, Paine. You'll see. I'll bring Spira an eternity of blissful peace and all the betrayals and hate will fade into oblivion." The illusion continued to say, though his voice was weird.

Understanding what was about to happen, I jumped forward and pushed Paine out of the way just in time to catch "Shuyin's" sword with my hands as it came in for a stab. Areth's face suddenly replaced Shuyin's and smirked at me before the entire illusion collapsed and we were back in the dark. Paine was furious after getting back her senses, growling before she ran to the final segment before Omega's platform.

Just as I was about to follow, though, that same girl popped back in front of me and so did creepy Shuyin. As I looked on, I saw the tip of Shuyin's sword emerge from the girl's back, blood spewing from the wound and covering the weapon and Shuyin on the other side. The guy only laughed more, plucking his sword back out like it was just a joke. Then, he looked at his fist, saying a simple, "I was told to rip it out and squash it!" before shoving it into the girl's chest and pulling out her still-beating heart. I looked on horrified as he just watched the heart come to a stop before dropping it on the ground and crushing it under his boot. Taking a look at my hands, I could actually feel the girl's blood all over me, my clothes soaked in it just as much as Shuyin's was. Again, Shuyin just laughed at all of it, laughed while the girl fell to the floor, laughed as he went on with this disgusting murder.

"Still alive? Good… I wouldn't have wanted you to miss this." He said just before he cut off her head.

Picking up the severed head, he walked right to me, staring at it with a sick sneer. Then, he took that look to me, eyeing me up and down, "Pathetic. You could never do what's needed of you. That's why I'll eventually have you all at my mercy."

The image disappeared again and when I confirmed that there was no blood on me, I went to catch up with Paine. By this point, she was already on the platform where we fought Omega Weapon during Yuna's pilgrimage, sword drawn in two very shaky hands. Concerned about her, I stood behind her and held out Brotherhood to be able to cover most of her weakest areas. I didn't need Areth popping up on her when she wasn't ready. It was bad enough what he was doing to her with all the Shuyin illusions.

Still, I had to admit I was confused about it, myself. The messages directed at us directly were obviously that assclown's doing, but what about all the other stuff? Why was that girl always the same? Her clothes made her look so much like Yuna and to have Shuyin murder her like that, it couldn't have been real, could it? Although, Shuyin was worried about something. Was this murder it? Did he really do all this?

"You already know the answer to that." The voice of Areth echoed all around, bringing my full attention back to the ruins.

"Show yourself!" I growled.

"Take it easy. That's what he wants. He seems to excel at getting us off our game." Paine hissed, her voice telling me that she was already suffering from that effect.

"Paine Paine Paine, you'll have your proof soon enough. Or is your newfound faith born out of newfound lo-"

"Are you going to keep ranting or are you going to grow a backbone?" Paine spat.

"The latter." Both of us grew wide-eyed; the answer had come from very close.

I felt a stiff kick to my back just as I heard Paine's gasp. When I recovered, I saw Areth in the distance with a struggling Paine, her feet flailing about while he choked her. His other hand had taken hold of her sword-wielding arm, giving her few options to retaliate. Rushing to her aid, I found myself being assaulted by her weapon when Areth took hold of it with some of his pyreflies. While I was stuck clashing swords, Areth slammed Paine into the back wall, knocking her out before turning back into pyreflies. Other pyreflies then surrounded the blade, turning back into that sadistic Shuyin from the illusions.

"He's not just an illusion, you know." Areth's voice sounded from the darkness, "At one point, this Shuyin brutally murdered my love, Trista."

Blocking a downward slash, I said, "That girl, you mean? Why would Shuyin do that?"

"You know so little about him. Maybe that's why you two are so different. Even Yuna said it, didn't she?"

"Give her back!" I roared, managing to put a clean gash across the illusion's chest.

"I have to say, you do share the same temper, though. That's why I've come to you, only, though. That's actually why I needed to take hold of Yuna. You know, Shuyin let his love for Lenne turn him into a monster. He was so afraid of losing her that he was ready to do anything to keep her alive. In the end, even she didn't want him to go through with it."

"I already heard that story, jackass. Shuyin told me himself that I succeeded where he failed, but we had the same goals. If you and Bevelle hadn't started that war, he wouldn't have had to go nuts like he did." I spat, digging Brotherhood into the illusion's shoulder.

"And I agree about that, believe me. But Shuyin obviously didn't tell you who really wanted the war between Bevelle and Zanarkand. Also, I'm sure he only briefly mentioned what he did to Trista, if he even did that. You have a very unique opportunity, kiddo. You've just seen what Shuyin's capable of. You should know people don't one-eighty that easily."

"Like you? I know enough about you to know that you were always this manipulative. You really think all this storytelling can win me over?" I returned, slicing apart the illusion's sword arm, disarming him for my final blow.

"Hey, you're at the controls, mate. Just remember what fear can do to your perspective." Areth purred.

Without saying anything else, I went for an overhead swing to finish off the illusion. Its pyreflies fizzled as my sword came down and dispersed just in time for me to see Yuna at the center. I stopped Brotherhood just in time and caught her unconscious form in my arms as Areth reappeared in front of us.

"Think this over, T. You are better than him." He said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Areth!" I heard my own voice shout.

Back on the path, I saw Rikku and Shuyin racing to reach us. When they did, Shuyin immediately bounded for the guy, swinging down to take him down and nearly hitting Yuna as he did. I pulled away just in time to see that he actually used his Spiral Cut variation, Spin Cut. At such a close range to us, he could've easily hit us, too. Did he not get that? Or did he not care?

"Shuyin, Paine's hurt!" Rikku called over.

"Areth, your business is with me. Leave them out of it." Shuyin said, holding his arms out.

"They got themselves involved the minute they let you in." Areth answered back, beginning to fade into pyreflies. Right before he faded away completely, he turned to me and gave me a wink to confirm his motives.

Shuyin went over to check on Paine as I brought Yuna to them, as well. Rikku, almost on reflex, switched to her and checked on her condition, opting to get everybody back to the airship straight away. Meanwhile, Shuyin started checking the altar behind Omega's platform, lost in his thoughts. When I called him, he just looked back to me, then took a breath, a furrow in his brow like he was thinking about something.

"Let's go." Was all he ended up saying, heading off for the airship and helping Rikku carry Paine.

With Yuna still in my arms, I was left looking at his back in wonder. _Shuyin… what is going on?_

**Author's Note:** Just what is Areth's plot? Why is Shuyin being so abrasive about it? His past dealings with Trista and its bloody conclusion has been revealed to the rest of our cast, but he still seems so secretive. Can there be more to Shuyin accepting his new life than meets the eye? Is there really something the former plague of Spira is hiding to keep his own plots under the shadow's veil?


	33. Brawn Over Brains

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Last time, Yuna was returned to the group, but with cautious words shared by Areth to Tidus. The entire time, he showed them Shuyin's worst in life, the brutal murder of Trista, despite that Trista having been only a clone. In the past, Areth showed several moments to the group of Shuyin doing wrong before becoming an unsent and picking those incidents to question the group's trust of him. Following Seymour's defeat, it seemed that everyone had built a solid team together, understanding that Shuyin was the Shuyin of the past and not the unsent Shuyin they still had to deal with. Will Areth's meddling foul that team unity?

To my reviewers:

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 32: Brawn Over Brains**

Rikku

Nobody knew what I was thinking after Omega Ruins. I knew having Yunie back should have made me extremely happy, but we didn't actually get Yunie back. Areth led us to him, to that awful place to trick us with Yunie being the only thing he knew would get us to go. That meanie, and then he was able to get Paine injured, too. I don't know what happened between the blitzing wonder before we showed up, but from what Shuyin told me, it wasn't anything good. And Shuyin… the things he told me… I just didn't want to think about it anymore, but I knew he needed me now more than ever to keep the fight going. I couldn't give in.

"We need to get Yuna and Paine somewhere safe." He began saying, leaning against the rocky wall of Mount Gagazet while he looked at his other half tending to them.

"Where? Where do you expect us to go?" He screamed in response.

We only just found out a short while ago, right after leaving the ruins that the Celsius was out of commission. After Bevelle and our fight against Major Numerus, our airship took on too much damage. Brother and Buddy made some quick repairs to it enough so we could get here to save Yunie, but that was all she had left in her. At present, we were totally stranded. Brother was still working with Buddy on the engines, but it didn't look good. It seemed as though our mission was going to be a failure if we couldn't get to any of the possible target sites quickly enough, but that didn't stop me.

"Vydran!" I screamed into one of the comspheres, "Fa haat yh yencreb huf! Ujan!"

He moaned something weird and low and growlie that I couldn't really make out, but that was fine since I had more in my bag, "E's cunno, E druikrd E raynt socamv cyo UJAN!"

Vydran fell over in his chair and woke up completely after that, coming to the comsphere and shouting something else that was weird and droolie, but then added, "Right, I gotcha! I'ma comin'! Thunder Plains, right? That's the signal I've got here. Nothin' doin', I'll be there in ten!"

Of course, Vydran knew that ten from him meant, "Ugyo, pa rana eh veja sehidac. E muja oui, vydran. Poa poa."

When I got back to our makeshift campsite just outside the airship, I found Shuyin and Paine gone. His other half was still tending to Yunie so I decided I'd ask him what happened while I was gone getting us a ride.

"Well, after Paine woke up, she just grabbed Shuyin and they went off to the other side of the Celsius. I'm not really sure what they're doing back there, but I thought I'd rather not interrupt." He said.

"How's Yunie?" I said, changing the subject.

"I think she's just exhausted. Some time to rest should be fine, but I shouldn't have let it happen."

To be honest, there was nothing I could find wrong with my cous except that she was definitely going to wake up traumatized from being possessed. From what Shuyin told me, he wanted Areth to carry on with his plan and set up those two to be on that path. Areth had no intention of hurting Yunie because he was trying to get us to fight against Shuyin. Why, he didn't know yet, but that's why he wanted to let Areth win a few times. There was something he was waiting for that he hoped was going to both solve all of this and let Spira rest in peace.

After a while, they returned and I found out that Paine wanted to discuss the Trista incident that Areth had shown them. Actually, Shuyin was more than ready for that and, even though he had separated us into two groups to roam around the ruins, Shuyin really took me to the surface of one of the last surviving areas of the old Omega City that was built over the Omega Mines that we called the ruins. He told me that it was here where his dark side took over for a moment and he viciously killed Trista. He had told me that he lost it because of Kirin. That was the night when Areth betrayed him and revealed that Trista was also a traitor. Jurama, Kirin's boyfriend, died from them and Kirin was really hurt by it. He said he was going to do everything in his power to save me from repeating Kirin's fate, but he needed Areth to succeed first. Apparently, he needed those two to know about that, too.

"That's where we stand." He told Paine, going to check on Yunie.

"So, is that still you, or did Dark Shuyin inherit that from you?"

"What are you guys talking about?" The blitz ace asked, clueless as usual.

"It's what I was telling you before. Areth's playing all of you against me so that he can weaken our forces like he did with my friends in the past. That's what he's good at. He'll work into you, make you trust him, and then when your doubt is great enough, that's when he'll drop the bomb and add to the wounds he's already inflicted." Shuyin explained.

"We already accept what you've done, Shuyin. Areth can try, but we'll use his own tactics against him this time!" I shouted.

"That's what I'm hoping to do. Paine's already figured that out. She just wanted to clarify how much of me was reliable. Right now, I'm only worried about his ultimate goal. It's almost impossible he'd hold on as an unsent over just our rivalry. He wanted me dead. He got it. There must be something more to him now, but we're only going to find that out after he's defeated. Just like he did back then, his true motives are only revealed once he's accepted a final stage. For now, he's building to it, which means we're just going to have to play along."

"How long do you think he's going to play around? I'm not getting any younger." Paine grunted, crossing her arms.

"Actually, I think we should focus more on the other issue at hand. If Areth's going to pull old tricks, we have time to deal with him. That's my point."

I decided to help out, "So we'll finish off the shadow while Areth's too busy playing reruns!"

"Then, he'll have nothing left to use against us and we'll squash the rodent wherever he chooses to hide." Shuyin said, clenching his fist tight.

"Heya, did somebody call for some air support?" A loud voice boomed from the sky.

Looking at my watch, I nodded happily that about five minutes had passed and waved up at the Fahrenheit looming above. As it landed, the dirt around the Thunder Plains began to lift, flying all over the place and getting in my hair. Whining a protest, I started hopping toward them and frowned as the ship's rear hatch opened for us to board. As soon as I got inside, I started storming to get to my Vydran's appointed pilot and sock him a good one, but the blitz ace beat me inside, getting Yunie to the med bay on the jiffy.

Even with that, I kept on my approach, but as soon as we all got to the bridge, I was ambush tackled by a kid still in his Bikanel garb. Before he even said a single word, I knew exactly who it had to be and was thrilled to have him back on the team.

"Shinra! Taking a break from the desert campaign, are ya?" I happily greeted, petting the boy genius on his cloaked head.

"Guess even a kid can't stay away too long." He told me, hugging me close.

"I'm sure any growing boy would be happy to see Cid's girl in that getup, if you know what I mean." The familiar annoying voice of Gippal mused.

Vydran didn't like that and glared daggers into the celebrity Al Bhed who could only wave his hands awkwardly to take back his bad joke. I decided to plunk him deeper into his hole and leaned right into him, putting my arms on his shoulder and giving him a look. I was close enough to smell the beads of sweat coming down his neck and, before long, the pirate dashed off back to the engine room.

"Actually, we got a signal just before getting here." Vydran said once we were all situated.

"Where was it and can you pinpoint its source?" Shuyin asked, going over to the main screens.

"Sensors detect the anomaly situated around Kilika Island, but besides that, nothing other than energy readings indicating a cluster of pyreflies." One of the officers on deck told him.

"Keep your eyes out for a visual and call me when you have it." He said, immediately leaving for, what I could guess had to be, the deck.

"Ruf vyn yna fa vnus Kilika?" I asked the pilot.

"Fa'mm pa uh ybbnuylr fedreh dra ruin!"

"Knayd!" I cheered, turning to make my way to the deck with Shuyin until I remembered my own duties.

"Rikku?" Paine asked me curiously, "Weren't you on your way somewhere?"

"Maybe Cid's girl is having second thoughts." A gruff voice said, announcing itself with that mean joke at my expense.

"No, if we're going to Kilika, there's no reason for Areth to go to Kilika. Shuyin and Areth never dealt with each other there, which means it's the other one. If he's going there, he must be looking for more Aeon power. We'll have to be ready for Fire-type magic and probably think about the jungle he'll have to burn with us in it." I said while ignoring Nooj, but I wasn't really sure if anything I was saying would work; after all, I was trying to sound wiser than I really was.

"Whoa, Rikku's got her strategy down!" The blitz ace stammered, telling me my words did the trick.

"Actually, she really has." Dr. P joined in, going over to the monitors to scan the field maps of Kilika Island, "Yea, the jungle between the temple and the village, that's a perfect spot for Ifrit to strike. We should be ready for that."

I had them all distracted with the oncoming battle, well, except one little smarty, "Can I ask Rikku something?"

"What is it?"

"If Dark Shuyin is going to use the pyreflies of the Ifrit faith, won't he construct something that won't share its element anyway? I've been looking over the most recent battle data and it shows that each time Dark Shuyin creates a fiend from an Aeon base, he usually takes away its elemental properties. Actually, it would be advisable for him to do so since the elemental affinities of those Aeons would only give us an advantage with their corresponding weakn…" Shinra kept rambling on before I covered his mouth to stop him.

"Well, for your information, when he was using Valefor, the Major Numerus fiend had an ability call Clione that made big swirling vortexes of energy pop up out of nowhere so it might not have the elemental bits, but it still has the attacks." I told him.

"Is there something more you're not sayi…"

"Well, if you know so much, why don't you let them know what I'm really thinking, huh?"

"I'm just a kid." He said, shaking his head, "But I am interested in that Clione thing. I'm going to go look up the records on him."

Putting a hand up to my forehead and letting loose a sigh, I turned back to the rest of them who had already turned away from me, concentrating on what I had said. After deciding on a good enough workaround regardless of the shadow's advantage in using Kilika to summon an Ifrit variation, they started wondering about certain other things.

"Hey, all this time we've been here yet I think we keep missing one person." Paine noted, looking around.

"Baralai's been through a lot." Nooj explained, "After that last incident in Bevelle, Baralai got wise to what was really going on. All the sightings of a blonde attacking various points of Spira, we were able to steal ahead and confiscate the records, but that, that was too big. There was nothing we could do to cover it up."

"What's he plan to do?" Paine asked, "I can't imagine him sitting in the ruins preparing rebuilding plans."

"He's on the warpath." Nooj said, putting his hand up to his eyebrows, "Last I heard, he was fortifying the defenses around Vegnagun and adding more seals to the Den of Woe."

"Does he really think more cement will stop him from getting those pyreflies and more men will stop him from regaining Vegnagun?" Paine asked.

"No, but those are just the first steps. He's gone more suicidal than I was before. If we don't end this or get some results fast, I'm not sure we'll be able to continue with this mission unabated. We may just have another front to deal with."

I interrupted then, "We'll have to have a result then. After the shadow is defeated, we can show Baralai that the person he wants so bad is gone and he'll just have to focus on Areth instead. If we can get him to help us, everybody will be going after Areth in the end and that unsent'll have no place to hide!"

Again shock greeted me. Everybody was so surprised that I was coming up with the plans this time, it really made me sigh for either Yunie to get better or Shuyin to come down. Still, Yunie's boy came to my side for her and said that it was a good plan, but I knew there had to be that one other reason he'd want the shadow put down so bad. Like Shuyin wanted, first we beat his dark side, then every gun would be turned on Areth and it'd be over quick. I just hoped everything the guy predicted was really going to happen because if it didn't, I didn't want to lose him, too.

We figured out that the shadow was doing all this not because he was trying to kill him. He wanted our Shuyin to remember everything that made him do what he did as the shadow. The shadow needed our Shuyin to be whole, but we didn't know exactly why he'd need him. I was sure some of them were thinking that a physical body was what he needed before when using Vegnagun. What better body for him to possess than his own? I was sure somebody was thinking that because that's what I thought, too.

"Dark Shuyin sighted!" The navigator announced, signaling Shuyin right away before I could slow him down.

From the HUD at the front of the Fahrenheit, all of us watched helplessly as our Shuyin dove down from the deck straight for him. Rushing to the screen, I called out for him, but I knew that wasn't going to do anything. With everybody else in tow, we made a quick sprint to the deck, the Fahrenheit's design much more awkward for fast access to the top hatch than the Celsius'. The pilot descended for Kilika as we made it out and we held on, watching as Shuyin blocked the shadow's fiery Force Rain, using the steady stream of energy to lower himself safely to the ground. As soon as it was safe, all of us also let go of the ship and dropped to his side, readying our weapons against the unsent.

"Nice to have you around, deathseeker." Shuyin said, winking at Nooj.

"Anytime to shower you with munitions."

"Fahrenheit's going to be useless here with all the trees." Gippal noted, whipping out his Grinder.

"It's fine. We already know what we have to do." Paine explained, lifting her sword in attack.

I spherechanged to Psycher and hid behind the others. I knew this battle was going to need me, but not in a straight fight. Our two blonde swordsmen raised their weapons and started us off. They charged right into the shadow, but he turned into pyreflies, spreading himself into the trees. Paine and Nooj circled wide and Gippal began cutting down a few with his weapon. Meanwhile, I saw smoke coming from behind the dense leaves. In my mind, that had to have meant the temple, which meant that the shadow knew we were going to guess at a wildfire and run scenarios that way. Shuyin turned and nodded to me, which told me he knew what was going on, too. Using my teleporting ability, I got myself past the distractions and investigated the temple.

"What? But that's not…" I said surprised, looking at what was there on the steps.

I had initially assumed that the shadow was really going after the temple's priests or some innocent visitors like he had done with Besaid Temple. It was supposed to be his old tactic to lure our Shuyin into worrying about them and losing focus on the fight. Maybe he had learned from failing then that Shuyin was ready to face him completely and even understood that nothing else was going to work toward saving bystanders other than direct combat. Still, if the shadow realized this, what was his idea this time? All that was burning on the temple steps was a few large logs and tipped over lanterns, nothing that could harm the temple itself. Also, there was enough distance from the main entrance for those at the temple to deal with it just like any old accidental fire.

"Shuyin, are you receiving?" I said into my communicator.

"Go ahead, Rikku. What's the status of the temple? Have you cleared out the hostages?" Shuyin replied.

"There aren't any hostages! The fire's a ruse. The temple staff are already putting it out."

Shuyin's growl from the other end showed me that he wasn't ready for it either, "Come inside the forest. We'll deal with the shadow then."

Soaring into the trees, I saw that the shadow was still using his normal swordplay, cutting at the branches and using his acrobatics instead of doing anything Ifrit-ty. When I got to the clearing he created, I saw that Paine was on the ground, pinned down by lots of branches and Gippal was helping her out. Nooj and Shuyin were engaging him to set the stage for the blitz ace hiding in the tree behind him. As soon as I was in range, I switched to Samurai dressphere and threw some fireworks at his feet. The shadow faded back into pyreflies again and knocked his stalker from the trees, grabbing hold of him with the pyreflies and hurling him into Nooj as Shuyin dodged. Shuyin spherechanged to Black Mage and shot them one by one with his lower level spells until it reformed.

"Stand and fight." He told him.

"I didn't come here to rough it out with you like animals… Although, since you seem to like stampeding in like a mad bull, I ought to oblige." The shadow said, forming a blanket of flame around him.

As we all expected, he combined himself with Ifrit. A claw punctured the sheet of fire that kept him from being seen and ripped it away like a curtain. The shadow now had Ifrit's large claws, his jaw also aligned with large teeth too great for his mouth to conceal. His hair grew longer like a mane, lit ablaze at the tips, patches of the same kind of hair also covering the backs of his hands, and reached out from his shirt. The curtain of fire was still in his claw until he flicked it to the side, the flames reaching around us really fast and separating us from the others.

Snarling like a wild beast with his normal blue eyes glowing an angry blue, he roared, "FIGHT ME!"

Shuyin signaled me to stay close, but not to attack and went into the fray. Without even taking three steps forward, the shadow was already on him, claws catching his sword and throwing him back. Shuyin recovered in the air, flipping around and planting his feet into the ground before leaping and slicing down at the shadow. But, being Ifrit, the shadow used its Meteor Strike to throw a volley at him, forcing him to deal with them first. While he was defending himself, the shadow was able to flip up and tackle him back at the ground, swinging a claw down as soon as Shuyin landed. Reacting swiftly, Shuyin spherechanged to Samurai and initiated his Reversal maneuver, knocking the baddie back. Getting up, he motioned for me to come, now that he knew more about how to fight against it.

"What's the plan?" I asked him.

"Flank." He told me, circling left as I nodded and circled right.

Shuyin cast Hayate and told me to do likewise, seeing as the Ifrit in the shadow was giving him heightened speed. With the boost, we were able to avoid the wild charges our enemy kept using on us. It also helped with the Meteor Strikes. The problem was that Hayate was temporary and we were still using up our own stamina to keep going while the shadow had Aeon power, making his assaults effortless. After a few more boosts from Nonpareil, No Fear, and a few more Hayates, we were running short. Also, since he kept dodging us just as much as we were dodging him, our supplies were exhausted. I spent the last of my Sparklers keeping it off me while I was trying to get another Nonpareil going, but he just dodged that and my next strike, throwing a Fira-irradiated claw at me to take away my Protect and Shell spells. Without those helping my defense and the last bits of my speed drained, I wasn't going to hold out much longer. At first, I hid that fact from him well enough to make him go after Shuyin instead while I looked for an Ether or Elixir, but his menacing eyes eventually found me looking and charged at me full speed.

"Rikku!" Shuyin called out, motioning for me to duck.

After I did so, I saw that he used Dismissal on his odachi and threw it into the shadow's back, causing him to flinch and drop behind me. Turning around, I quickly readied my katana for a Zantetsu, but he recovered really fast and deflected the sword away before tackling me to the ground, his huge claws pinning me to the grass. While he attacked, I struggled and managed to free one arm, but that only ended up helping him when he went down to bite me. I had to hold him back with my free hand, but that let him use his free claw to swipe away at my armor, tearing it away and leaving me defenseless.

"Let her GO!" I heard Shuyin scream, knowing he really had only one option left.

"What you gonna do about it?"

Shuyin had a dressphere on his Garment Grid that was probably the best match for this guy, but just as I figured it out by then, I knew he had to have figured it out, too. The shadow was luring Shuyin to spherechanging into Berserker, the dressphere that he couldn't control before. If he used it, he would definitely beat the shadow, but if he couldn't control the dressphere like last time, he'd just as likely kill me, too. I knew he didn't want to chance it, but I was at the end of my rope either way.

"Shuyin, just do it! Better one of us making it out than neither of us!" I screamed, his claw raising to slice me apart.

"As soon as I get him clear, you run, got it?" He shouted, getting his Garment Grid ready.

"I believe in you, Shuyin. You haven't failed me yet." I said as calmly as I could to remind him of Kirin and shed him of his doubts.

With a terrifying howl, Shuyin stormed in and jumped on the shadow, biting him all over and scratching every time his grip loosened. But even with that, the shadow managed to knock him away, lifting me up with a claw to my back, holding me up in front of him. When Shuyin recovered, I could see how much he was struggling with it, but one thing was for sure…

"What's the matter? Anger getting the better of you?"

"Ri…kku…" Shuyin growled, his eye giving out a slight wink before he went back on his haunches.

Popping up my hip, I managed to get my Garment Grid out and kicked it right on my Thief Dressphere. The light from my spherechange caused the shadow to flinch and, when I was fully changed, my speed and flexibility let me wiggle out of his grasp and kick him in the face for good measure, using the momentum I got from it to leap away just in time for Shuyin to gore him to the ground and start slashing and biting at him. The two of them rolled around for a while, but with Berserker only abilities like Hurt and Cripple, even Ifrit's feral power couldn't hold up against it. Even when the shadow flung Shuyin away and pulled together, an instant Mad Rush toppled him over again.

"You…" He tried to tell Shuyin.

Without letting him finish, Shuyin flip-kicked an Eject ability at the shadow, launching him away, his pyreflies releasing those of the Ifrit fayth. Landing, he turned and said, "Button it."

"Shuyin, are you alright?" I asked.

Turning to me with a snarl, he lowered back onto his haunches and leaped into me, tackling me to the ground. With a growl, he moved his face closer to mine, his hot breath grumbling lowly, "I'm fine, how about you?"

Taking the opportunity to lick my cheek, he popped off and reverted back to his normal form. I got up and wiped the drool from my face and gave him a pout as the rest of the team rejoined us.

"What just happened?" Gippal asked, scratching his head.

"Only one more to go." Shuyin said, looking at me.

"Where do you think he'll go?"

"Where else? Where do you go when you're out of options?"

"Home."

"Zanarkand." Shuyin breathed.

**Translations from Al Bhed:**

**Vydran, Fa haat yh yencreb huf! Ujan! – **

Father, We need an airship now! Over!

**E's cunno, E druikrd E raynt socamv cyo UJAN! –**

I'm sorry, I thought I heard myself say OVER!

**Ugyo, pa rana eh veja sehidac. E muja oui, vydran. ****Poa poa. –**

Okay, be here in five minutes. I love you, father. Bye bye.

**Ruf vyn yna fa vnus**** Kilika?**

How far are we from Kilika?

**Fa'mm pa uh ybbnuylr fedreh dra ruin!**

We'll be on approach within the hour!

**Knayd!**

Great!

**Author's Note:** It seems as though we're missing out. Just what is it that Rikku and Shuyin know about the situation? What do they hope to do with that knowledge to help them in the battles to come? Are they on the right track? Also, it seems Shuyin's getting much more comfortable using his new Garment Grid. The power he received when he first used the Black Mage dressphere was enticing enough; just what else does he have to look forward to? And does he crave that power?


	34. Last Stand

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **Aw, no reviewers this time around? Well, perhaps this Dark Shuyin arc has dragged on a bit too long, but that's fine since, rejoice, it is just about over! Can you guess what's going to happen next? That's right, the final battle against Dark Shuyin is upon us and there's going to be a brilliantly gruesome bout with none other than the king of all dragons named after a fish, Bahamut! And since this is my absolute favourite Aeon, it calls for a absolutely and gratuitously long battle sequence. Enjoy! =D

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 33: Last Stand**

Shuyin

There was only one place the thing could go now and there was only one more Aeon left for him. From his ploy at calling me out as a white knight to his despicable act against Valefor, he had been drawing me closer, hoping that I would reawaken back to form and help him complete himself. I knew that he realized by now his failure, but there was something to his despair. Despair was my power back when I was an unsent. When I infused it into my victims, I had complete influence over their lives and manipulated everything for total control of anything I sought fit on Spira. What if I had lost that power? What if I could no longer guide the fates of the commoners?

"You're looking a lot better, Lady Summoner." I said, entering the med bay after the others.

After nodding to her and looking at Rikku, I took to the bridge and began reviewing the documents we had on all our encounters with the shadow, Areth, and even the former Maester. Every meeting held a specific significance to their personal history. All of them seemed to have similar goals, but those were really just hiding the underlying fact: They were all distracting us from the true conspiracy. Seymour's ploys of revenge and repeating old stunts only helped catch the others on a tour of their past dealings, keeping them from thinking apart. Meanwhile, having my nightmares taunting me with ills of old made it too difficult to concentrate on anything else except to deal with them.

"It makes advancing on it really troublesome, doesn't it?" A youthful voice stated from behind me.

Pulling down the file on Vegnagun that I was looking at, I turned to the prodigious Al Bhed boy and replied, "Yes, it does."

"You were able to tame it, though."

"I was."

"Records of its construction show that it had a drive that could charge its core weapons systems with the energy of the Farplane." He said, unveiling his actual intentions.

"Most of Bevelle's old war machines could. Although, actually, it was a potential energy transformer that captured pyreflies and converted the life potential of the little creatures into their weapons' firing capacity. We learned that those transformers were the first versions of energy plantations that were used to power our Machina Cities." I told him, curious to discover his motives.

"The Farplane's Energy is something that we could harness to power the next series of Machina Cities." He said.

"I guess they could, but do you think you can be responsible enough to handle the technology?"

"Responsible?"

"Every nuance in technology brings with it several drawbacks that must be looked after and improved upon. Nothing good can come without price." I told him, knowing enough not to tamper too much in the advancement of this modern Spira, but offering the boy a word of caution from Zanarkand's experience.

"You two look busy." Rikku said, announcing her presence.

"Ugh, more of that techno-babble." Gippal added, "E zicd lyh'd kad so rayt ynuiht ed."

"Maybe you're using the wrong head." Rikku noted, patting him on the shoulder.

"Fryd'c dryd cibbucat du sayh?" He retorted.

"She probably thinks you're saluting the wrong captain." I added, going back over to Shinra and showing him the Vegnagun diagnostics and operating systems data I found on the Fahrenheit's files, "Analyze this stuff for a while and see if you can come up with a work out how it functions."

"Where to next?" Buddy asked us, noticing that we had all assembled.

"We think Zanarkand." Rikku said.

"Zanarkand?" Yuna questioned, arriving then to take part, "Why Zanarkand?"

"He's out of Aeons and he's cornered. Where else could he go?" I told her.

"Yunie, are you sure you should be out of bed?"

"I'm fine. Areth didn't even try to hurt me. Really, all he did when he possessed me was tell me to calm down and that everything would be fine. Then, I lost consciousness." She explained to us.

"That's considerate of him." I noted, surprised myself.

"I don't think consideration was the point." She said.

"Neither do I." Nooj added.

Later on, the former Crimson Squad members began discussing their next moves outside of battle. Nooj decided that Areth would be left to us as he was now in charge of the youth of Spira, guiding Spira's future on their journey towards bettering their world. Gippal was free to remain as his own organization dealt with improving technologies on the planet from their Yevon-ordered conditions. This progress was slow and Gippal had agreed to a commercial approach in dealing with it, allowing the Al Bhed Rin to focus his wealth on innovations based on accumulating more wealth rather than keep to a conglomerate method. He felt that would allow advancements to come sooner and in greater abundance, having fueled other Al Bhed to rival Rin and compete for gil. At the moment, their weakest link seemed to be their comrade, Baralai, who had been focusing most of his resources on me as soon as he discovered my return. This brought questioning to his faction since the masses depended on his spiritual leadership in following the Yevon faith. This, became particularly important with the recent destruction of the Bevelle Tower. Many had started to believe there would be no end to the Spiral of Death that Spira seemed ensnared by. Paine suggested that Nooj appoint someone that the elders trusted to act in Baralai's stead, receiving his blessing first, which would allow the Praetor to continue his own agenda while not inhibiting the progress of New Yevon on Spira's hope.

"Maybe we should send you to Bevelle first, then." I said, looking over to him.

"Not yet. I want to see this through. I think you know why." He told me.

"Your funeral. How far from Zanarkand?" I said, asking the pilot after about our location.

"We're just coming over Bevelle now." He replied, opening a screen to show me the top view from the hull.

"Last chance." I told Nooj.

Loading his gun, he stepped over to me, then looked at the pilot, "Make haste."

"Aye aye, sir!"

"This girl couldn't help you in Kilika, but I reckon she'll do well in the ruins." Cid bellowed, walking up to us.

"You've given up on the tourists, I see." Rikku said, elbowing her father in the gut a few times.

"E yeh'd hu picehaccsyh." He grunted, "You just say the word and I'll have air-support ready and waiting."

"Thanks pops!"

Seeing Yuna and my better out to the side, I decided I should see about uncovering their sudden shyness. At first, it seemed Yuna was withdrawn from me, but neither my better nor I could figure out what the cause was until she asked me out of earshot of the rest if everything Areth had shown her was true. Nodding to me, the blitz ace started to explain that Areth was filled with his own motives and would do anything to make us doubt one another further. He went on to say that Areth had already forced me to abandon them as allies once and drove me toward insanity. He said that I was brought out of that sort of thinking by Rikku's constant companionship, but it had taken from the days of having Seymour around until only recently for me to get the hint. He didn't want to repeat the same process over again with Yuna. However, I had to stop him. I told them the truth, that there were plenty of events in my past, even while living, that I regretted. Whatever Areth had shown her, it had to be real or else it would fall out of favor for him as he needed them to believe me to be untrustworthy and unstable. The resulting infighting might be able to draw out my darkness, which the shadow needed.

"Are you saying that they're working together?" Yuna asked.

"I wouldn't have believed it myself, but why else would be tearing our alliance apart like this? In the past, he would have done nothing to stay his gunblade from me, but up until now, he's focused only on me and not my stronger unsent half. Why would he favor one of us? There's more to his plot than simply breaking us apart and it ties in with the shadow. I think he isn't satisfied with the soulless pyreflies of the shadow alone. He's more invested in taking down the real me. It's possible he wants to throw us off balance and allow the shadow to regain me as its core so he can eliminate us then." I explained.

"So he's herding you towards the shadow to merge you guys together?" My fellow blitzer asked.

"Areth wasn't a fool. His subterfuge was skilled enough to make establish a façade during the whole of the Machina War. It wouldn't surprise me that he discovered the shadow's plans for me and was all too happy to oblige. It may pose a vantage point for him later if he wants to slay me then since the shadow would owe a debt."

"We already know you're not going back there, though, so we're in the clear." My better suggested.

"Don't be so sure. The shadow's got its own methods and manipulation. If we don't think through our movements, I'm not sure I can stay my will if I fall in battle." I told him.

"You have nothing to worry about. We've already beaten the guy enough times to know how to do it again. My only concern now is what Areth might do should his schemes fail him." Yuna noted.

Their trust was key to our next actions. If we were going to get to the bottom of this, a lot would have to happen that couldn't be left to chance. Everything had to go accordingly and even then, the chance of success wasn't definite. First was our victory at Zanarkand. If we force the shadow to its last, there would only be Areth and I had brought the lout to his knees on more than one occasion. His illusory powers were annoyances and that was all, but his goal to unite the shadow and I was both a great gambit and our best opportunity at exploiting a mortal weakness.

"We've arrived!" The pilot announced.

Just as he did, Fahrenheit was passed by a large creature, the only remnants it left behind being a few black feathers. Radar detected a large object circling the airship just out of visual range, which meant it had to be what we were all expecting. Moments later, a loud clang told us the creature had landed on deck and was awaiting further instructions. If we didn't hurry, it was strong enough to take down this airship, leaving us with no mode of transportation when time became scant.

Rushing up to meet it, I watched as Yuna, Rikku, and Paine changed into their special garments, each of them dressed in the proto-skins of their ultimate weapons. Once we were outside, Yuna and Paine jumped ship, releasing their flight capable machina artillery, Yuna's flowery apparatus riding the currents at our high altitude while Paine's swords rotated swiftly to create lift. Meanwhile, Rikku's heavy assault machina anchored itself to the deck's surface, its weapons systems targeting the dragon before it. Taking out my own Garment Grid, I looked at my better, before returning it, unsheathing my sword instead. Nodding to me, he unleashed Brotherhood, too, understanding I'd rather finish him off close and personal.

"Looking for me?" It said, pointing his own sword at me as he stood atop our favorite Aeon, the dragon Bahamut.

"You got that right!" My better shouted, lunging forward with a hard slash of the Brotherhood.

Bahamut caught the blade and threw its assailant upward, but that allowed him to flip above the shadow and stab downward. Rather than dodge, it simply held out the flat side of its sword and kept him at bay while Bahamut loosed Impulse at him. Rikku had the Machina Maw neutralize the energy bursts with her artillery bursts from the Howitzer mounts. Yuna and Paine circled around behind and launched Electric Whirl and Winterkill against the Aeon, forcing it to take to the sky.

Meanwhile, a separate horde of pyreflies compiled themselves in front of me, a small grouping of it extending to pat my shoulder as its form completed the body of Areth. "You'd think he would have mellowed out by now."

"Guess, like somebody, he just doesn't know when to quit." I spat back, slicing down with my sword and scattering his pyreflies as he ran.

Full Throttle came under heavy fire, with Bahamut casting Thundaga spells on its propeller swords. My better whistled to Yuna and jumped onto one of its large petals to use as a step to getting airborne again, bounding for the Aeon and managing to catch its tail. Stabbing Brotherhood into it, he was able to get on the dragon's body, allowing him to trade strokes of his blade with the shadow. However, Bahamut remained undaunted, continuing its assault on Paine. Realizing that Full Throttle wasn't going to last much longer, she turned it around and headed straight for the Aeon, jumping from it and spherechanging to Psycher when it reached, using her telekinesis to activate the armor's ultimate Swords Dance function and slicing apart the scaley flesh of the great beast.

At this point, the shadow had knocked the blitz ace off, Paine rescuing him to bring him back to the airship after. Using his own pyreflies, it mended the dragon's wounds and steered it upward, charging a MegaFlare in mid-air. Rikku set her machina on automatic and changed to Gun Mage, using the machina as a mounted cannon to launch Vajra cover fire at the Aeon. In the meantime, Rikku loaded Blue Bullets into her gun, waiting for the dragon to come within range. Riding higher into the sky, Bahamut evaded the Vajras and released the overdrive at the Fahrenheit. Quickly, Paine used Time Trip to freeze the shot and Yuna and Rikku began firing barrages of SuperNovas and Great Whirls to minimize the damage. Once the temporal magic subsided, all that was left of the Aeon's devastating attack was a small charge easily absorbed by both the Brotherhood and my sword.

Growling down at us, the shadow released some of its own pyreflies to recharge a second MegaFlare, sending it crashing into Yuna's Floral Fallal and forcing her out of the dressphere. Changing back to Gunner, she activated Death Petals in one Pistil and rode one of them down to safety while releasing the Floral and Fallal Bombs in the other Pistil to strike Bahamut, weakening its tough hide. Once she landed, we signaled Cid to fire the ship's missiles at the target, but as soon as they reached, the shadow crushed them in its pyrefly vice.

Areth reappeared then, again leaning against my shoulder, "You really know how to piss 'em off, don't you?"

"I learned from the best." I said, looking at him just in time to have Rikku Storm Cannon him away.

At last, the dragon dove in close and steadied itself just off the side of the Fahrenheit, the shadow glaring at me. "This ends here and now!"

"Couldn't agree more." With that, I snapped my fingers, unveiling the three sisters of Magus behind them.

Larea's Aeon trio used their special abilities against the dragon, forcing the unsent from it and onto the airship where I left it to the others to deal with. Leaping from the deck, I was caught by Sandy who acted as my wings as we gave chase to the dragon. As it dove underneath the ship, I had Mindy circle wide while Cindy remained close to provide support and the occasional Camisade. When Mindy was in position, it unleashed Passado, piercing Bahamut's wings with many of its stings. However, the incredible beast soared right into it, slicing it into a downward spiral. I commanded Cindy to make a swift save, using Curaga on the youngest sister to allow it to recover and return.

Pyreflies began to swarm the dragon then, however, and Areth's Doom overdrive kicked in, hurling meteors at us and putting us on the defensive while Bahamut sent Impulse after Impulse against us to worsen our evasion. Taking the opportunities to soak in oncoming meteors and Impulse charges, I pulled in enough energy to quicken, jumping onto Sandy's back and dashing forth to the next sister, slicing at the dragon with each pass using Hit & Run. Areth appeared on the dragon's back to block, but I was quite aware of his blind spots, striking him, as well as, causing major damage to the Aeon. Before long, Areth was forced to flee, his pyreflies floating back toward the Fahrenheit's deck.

Now on Cindy's back, I had Sandy get in close and use Razzia on Bahamut. However, nearing the dragon still proved difficult without speed so I had Cindy cast Slow on it, making its evasive tactics ineffective. We flew back up and over the airship, Razzia finally connecting with Bahamut and sending it plummeting onto the deck where the shadow had just finished demolishing Machina Maw, absorbing its Shockstorm and sending it back through the ship.

"Hey, take it easily up there!" Cid's voiced boomed on the external speaker.

Areth dashed straight into a Black Mage Paine, slicing apart her staff and knocking her into the entrance to the ship, but Yuna was on him immediately with Trigger Happy, the bullets forcing him to go on the defensive. Bahamut regained its footing and charged another Impulse, but sent only two of the spheres at Cindy and me while the other two struck Rikku and the blitz ace as they attempted to double-team it from the ground. Spotting Areth's movements, I had Mindy Passado him again, but Areth scattered into pyreflies and reformed behind the girl, his Zantetsuken bisecting her and dispersing her pyreflies. With one sister defeated, I no longer had the option of using Delta Attack to counter MegaFlare, and at such a close proximity to the airship, there wasn't going to be enough time to weaken it before it hit. Thinking quickly, I landed on the airship myself and had Larea keep the remaining two closer together as cover, taking to the battle personally. Paine shifted to Berserker and pounced on the shadow while Yuna kept pelting Areth in a shower of bullets. My better also spherechanged, this time to Dark Knight, using its heavy armor to take on the barrage while engaging Areth directly.

"Shuyin, you hit him low, I'll hit him high!" Rikku said, jumping off my shoulder from behind and landing on the Aeon's head with her daggers planted.

Doing as she said, I skidded to a stop just as I reached Bahamut's legs, slicing into the massive limbs as close to the ankles as I could. It shook and bashed its skull into the ship's surface, throwing Rikku off, but as soon as it did, my sword was waiting for it, slicing deep into its neck and jaw. The shadow immediately threw Paine into me before I could do any further damage and combined itself with the dragon, transforming them into a black seraph, claws like the dragon, but with a scaley likeness to my dress outfitting its chest and lower torso, the unmistakable face glaring at us as it took to the sky.

On the other side of the ship, Yuna and her man were being bested by Areth, his Zantetsuken ripping through the Dark Knight plating only to have Yuna's Trigger Happy fire rain down against it, shattering it completely. He reverted to his normal form and gave chase to the lout, but Areth set his sights on Larea, catching Cindy off guard and possessing her. I whistled to Sandy to have her use Razzia on her sister, which it did, but only at the cost of Cindy as Areth's pyreflies exhumed from her and attacked Rikku. He took hold of her hand and planted a straight shot of Heaven's Cataract directly into Sandy's chest, the wound pouring pyreflies out as Larea's innate fayth form appeared and returned to me. Paine quickly lunged for Areth, but only met with the flat side of his gunblade as he slapped her into the floor, firing his own shot at her back. Yuna shifted to Trainer then and loosed Kogoro at the snake.

The dog managed to catch Areth's sword, its miniscule form bearing little notice from him until Yuna announced, "Kogoro shock!"

Electricity pulsed from its teeth and stunned Areth, making him release his weapon just in time to come face to barrel with Rikku's Cry in the Night Blue Bullet, the terror of the Tonberry's essence tearing through the unsent and forcing it into retreat. "How do you like that?"

With Areth defeated, we only had to worry about the Bahamut Shadow. We called on Cid for another few volleys of missiles, but there was really only one thing that was going to disarm the shadow now.

"This is it…" He mouthed, his voice only audible in my mind, the link between us strengthening in the shadow's twilight hours.

With Bahamut's injuries mended by its presence within, he began charging a stronger form of the dragon's overdrive, GigaFlare. Rikku loaded Drake Slayers into her gun and fired them at him, but despite the damage the ammunition was causing him, he continued to charge. Apart from Rikku and Cid, the rest of us could only wait for it, the others hoping the massive amounts of damage being dealt would precipitate results before it finished charging.

"Game Over." He muttered in my mind, releasing the onslaught of force.

"Agreed." I replied, catching the entirety of the blast in my sword when it hit and surrounding it in my own power, redirecting it back in Force Rain.

The burst stream struck dead center and pushed the shadow's pyreflies away, sending it soaring into the distance while Bahamut's pyreflies reconstituted into the purple-veiled boy as he returned to Bevelle's temple.

**Translations**:

**"E zicd lyh'd kad so rayt ynuiht ed."**

_I just can't get my head around it._

**"Fryd'c dryd cibbucat du sayh? "**

_What's that supposed to mean?_

**"E yeh'd hu picehaccsyh." **

_I ain't no businessman._

**Author's Note:** If anyone caught the minute alteration of wording there towards the end, you deserve a cookie my friend. What does it mean for the upcoming chapter and the end of Dark Shuyin? Find out next time!


	35. Requiem to Shadow

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note: **Apologies for the tardiness, but after you read this, my hope is that you'll forgive me. This chapter leads right off from what we're all expecting to come from defeating a Dark Shuyin that used his favourite Aeon. Last chapter was very fun to write and I hope you enjoyed it, too, but aw, reviewless? Oh well, perhaps I can get some replies from this one.

Was the battle everything you were expecting? I hope so, but there were a few other bits I wanted to get in before the chapter ended. Did you guys notice? Well, the obvious one was Shuyin suddenly being able to summon Larea. If you remember, Larea said she was not going to be possessed again, but the good Shuyin managed to summon her anyway. What does that mean? Well, before you get to find that out, why don't we finally deal out one major problem. Time to bid farewell to Dark Shuyin!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 34: Requiem to Shadow**

Yuna

_"Do you think you can trust him?"_

Walking back into the Fahrenheit, I looked over the most recent events that had happened to us. Seymour, Dark Shuyin, and Areth had all taken their turns to divide us in their own way, but we were slowly prevailing. Even so, with the fall of Seymour and the many failures seemingly suffered by the shadow, neither he nor Areth seemed to be fazed and were still acting out their ploys accordingly. It made me wonder just how much of a victory we were really pulling out. With Dark Shuyin now at the brink, why were they still so diligent?

"Are we doing the right thing?" I asked myself, everyone else having returned to the bridge before me.

Once I got to the bridge, I went to seek out the only one who seemed to know. I found him stuck in front of the monitors again, reviewing documents and texts in the Fahrenheit's records as if he was looking for something, and it was something he was neglecting to mention to the rest of us. After telling us that Rikku brought him out of his old thinking, that he wasn't just here to pick up the pieces of Spira broken in the past, he said he was going to live his new life with us and started telling us a lot of his history. For a while, I honestly believed he was coming forth with the truth of his past, but even with everything he was willing to tell us, there was something missing.

"What are you looking at?" I asked him.

"The end is nearing, Yuna." He told me, his eyes never once leaving the console, "You heard my dark half: 'This is it'. What we do from here on out is going to have a direct effect over how the finale goes."

"The finale?"

"The darkness has been overtaken by light. Once we purify him, only Areth will be left. Without the unsent as a worthy adversary, I wonder what his point will be. He must have seen that by now. Perhaps that's why he came to my defense." Shuyin said, making a suspicious mistake in wording at the end.

"Your defense?" I asked, putting my worried hand on his shoulder.

"His." Was his simple correction before he went back to silently browsing the files.

One of the files open in the background, hidden somewhat by other overlapping files he perused had one name I was rather concerned about: Vegnagun. I couldn't make out the other files he had open, but the one he was looking at was also curious. He was looking over archaeological reportings on the Zanarkand Ruins. Normally, I wouldn't have taken it to mind; after all, it was his home; however, his persistence over a few of the photos and sphere recordings alarmed me. It was obvious he was searching for something, but was it a precaution that Dark Shuyin could have found something in the ruins to use against us, or was it something else?

Deciding to use distraction instead of confrontation, I asked, "Where do you think Dark Shuyin will go next?"

He breathed a grunt, saying, "Where all children flee when the perils of the world become too much to bare. It is safety and solace. Home, Shuyin's going home."

This confused me and again, it scared me what he was saying and how he was saying it, "What do you mean home? Wasn't that why we came to Zanarkand? He made his last stand here and you knocked him away. What…"

"Not my home. His home." He clarified, still maintaining his focus on the console files.

"The Den of Woe." Rikku's voice suddenly interjected.

"Rikku!" I gasped in surprise.

"Shuyin told me he was expecting that all along. The shadow's been luring Shuyin with each step. At first, it was just to remind him about the bad stuff he did in his past. After we beat Seymour, he started comparing Shuyin's capabilities to others like he was pulling him back into believing that the world is so useless and should be destroyed. I thought that the shadow was going to pull this stunt sooner or later, but Shuyin reminded me that it was going to be the most risky move for him so he would only go for it in the end." Rikku began explaining.

"What move?"

Rikku took a deep breath, "The shadow wants to possess Shuyin and absorb him."

"But that would give Shuyin the chance to overpower him and take control over him, wouldn't it?" I asked.

"Exactly, and that's why he saved it until now. He's out of options and wants me back now. There's only so much left that he can do, but it's going to be the worst of his capabilities." Shuyin said.

"Why?"

"Shuyin might have gotten better with us around, but that doesn't change what happened. Everything he's been through is going to be there in the Den of Woe. Those pyreflies that made us panic and feel sad and cold, what do you think they could do to Shuyin, Yunie?"

"So, it's going to show you those awful moments just like it showed me?" I asked him while clutching both his shoulders tightly, feeling so sorry for him.

"I imagine it'll be worse than that." He mumbled, "I showed you what I did because I wanted Lenne to reawaken and understand what I was trying to do, to tell her that I was repenting for my errors. That had nothing to do with piercing her conscience with guilt and despair. I didn't want to hurt her and, because of that, I wasn't going to hurt you. Even showing you the moment Lenne and I died, I didn't show you anything that led to it. I didn't want Lenne to see. My darkness isn't going to have the same benevolence toward me."

"But when it showed me that event in your past, it broke my heart."

"An unfortunate side-effect." He said, "I knew the memory was painful, but I needed her to understand. I needed forgiveness."

"I hope you realize now that you never needed it." I told him.

"For a long while now. Everybody's made that very clear to me."

The trip from Zanarkand to Mushroom Rock Road was a slow one as Nooj made us travel carefully the entire route in case the shadow wanted to see Shuyin alone. If what they were saying was right, all this time they were trying to separate us from him and leave him vulnerable to the temptation of reverting into his unsent persona. With us supporting him, that shouldn't happen so Nooj wanted to give us the best chance of making it to the Den of Woe together.

While Nooj, Paine, and Gippal deliberated on the next steps after defeating Dark Shuyin. Nooj had already decided he was needed to govern Spira with Gippal enlisted to aid us and Baralai on a quest to destroy all Shuyins, ours included. Paine reasoned that Nooj could propose the plan to allow a substitute Praetor to stabilize the masses seeking guidance with Spira's newest epidemic, but at the same time, she hoped Nooj could appoint trusted Youth League members to watch over Baralai, keeping him safe from actual harm considering Areth was still out there.

"It might be a good idea. He hasn't been thinking straight ever since hearing about our boy wonder over there." Gippal said.

"I'll have to see. Perhaps Lucil or Elma could help." Nooj replied, his fingers rubbing his chin in thought.

"Ask both of them just to be safe. Also, it isn't like the Youth League is up to this sort of thing. Keeping them occupied elsewhere might be best." Paine added.

"It's settled then. I'll arrange for Yaibal to find someone in New Yevon to fill in for Baralai as a sub-Praetor while he's gone. Lucil and Elma will accompany him on whatever his next moves are, but I'll have a couple of squads in the Youth League to keep him from getting into too much trouble. Maybe I could even get him to wait for Shuyin to go to him. That should keep him out of trouble."

When I heard Nooj's plan, an opening came into view. Shuyin was looking at the Vegnagun files. While I was sure he wasn't going to do anything foolish like that again, it made sense to me to be on the safe side. What harm could it be to have them guard it when Shuyin wasn't even thinking to go after it again? When we beat the shadow, there would be no one left to look for the machina except Areth and we weren't sure if he'd use it anyway. However, if he did, Baralai could help divert his attention while we were still in the Den of Woe. All in all, there wasn't much bad to my idea.

"Nooj, if you think about it, I'm sure Baralai would consider Shuyin returning to seek out Vegnagun. If you could convince him that that's what he's going to go after, we can keep Baralai at Bevelle Temple." I suggested.

"Yuna has a point." Paine added.

"The trouble will be convincing the guy to just wait for him to snatch up Vegnagun and not go all Great War against him first." Gippal noted.

"Still, the shadow managed to avoid him this long. Maybe you could point out that it could be leading Baralai away from the machina in order to claim it without hassle." I pointed out.

"M'lady is wise beyond her years. Then, it's settled." Nooj said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, but in the meantime, let's give him something to 'Praise be to Yevon' about." Gippal said, walking over to the navigation consoles.

"We'll be arriving shortly." Grumbled Shuyin nearby.

"How do you know?" Gippal asked him.

"I can feel him."

When we arrived at Mushroom Rock Road, the entire landscape was a testament to the despair that the shadow was able to create. Instead of the textured cliffs and gorges of the area was a dank pit, bleached in grays, the dirt burned black like ash. The surrounding boulders aligning the walls on both sides of the path to the Den of Woe crumbled at a touch, the residue left on our hands burning at our skin as if still bearing whatever acidic substance had withered them. Even the sky showed an eerie red and the clouds glared down at us, threatening to fill the land with their tears without a moment's notice. The ground we walked on rumbled, unstable and filling our hearts with an illogical sorrow.

"What is this?" I asked no one in particular.

"Don't pay attention. Keep moving." Shuyin said, moving on.

"I feel it." My love said, "I feel it like I did in the Al Bhed's Home."

"Feel what?"

"It's like I was then, when I just found out you were going to die at the end of the Pilgrimage. I was so hopeful and proud to guide you to Zanarkand, never thinking that anything was going to happen to you if we did. Then, they told me and I broke down."

"Is it regret? Fear? What do you suppose this is?" I asked him.

"I don't know, but if I'm feeling it, no doubt Shuyin's getting a much worse dose."

"Maybe you should stay near him. Since you're the dream of the faith in his image, you're probably the only one that can know what he's feeling." I suggested.

Nodding his agreement, he walked off and stationed himself next to the door with Nooj, the Mevyn waiting on Shuyin to have us proceed. I noticed him, off to the side in a small alcove with Rikku. He was just out of earshot and all I could make out was his back moving as if in speech. On the other hand, Rikku didn't seem to be comfortable with whatever he was saying to her. I chose to let them finish their conversation before confronting my cousin about it. If something was wrong, Shuyin still trusted Rikku more than any of us and that could be enough to tell Rikku any truths he might have eluded from us.

When he returned to the main group, I caught up to Rikku and asked, "Are you okay? What were you two talking about?"

However, Rikku ended up ignoring me, only taking the time to turn to me with a smile and hop off, entering the Den of Woe right after Shuyin and Paine. A stray tear escaped just before she could turn away, which told me something was going on, but she was unsure how to tell me. I only hoped that whatever Shuyin was hiding from us was for our sake and not information that could have been vital for us to know.

Inside the Den of Woe this time was chaos. Every step we made brought with it howling screams and wails from every corner of the severely darkened cavern. My love had spherechanged himself into a Black Mage to light our way with Fire, but even then, his flame came out a dreary blue and flickered about in a haunting light, reminding me of old tales of will o' wisps in my childhood. Further inside, the unintelligible screams began to focus on a few key words, though, since they were all wailing loudly at the same time, it was hard to pick them out.

"I know this feeling." Pain muttered, feeling the walls almost in a daze.

"I do, too." Both Nooj and Gippal made note.

"You would. This is the condition of the Den of Woe as you knew it from that day… more or less." Shuyin explained.

"You felt this horrible hurt before?" Rikku asked all of them.

Paine would be the only one to answer, "Yes, two years ago, when we came into the Den of Woe for the first time, all of the other members gave into this feeling and began killing each other. We were lucky enough to be stronger."

"You were lucky enough to be useful." Shuyin clarified, "Else, I would've broken your wills, too. Nooj intrigued me the most then. He kept thinking over the deaths I was causing and wanting to know why he wasn't taking part. I felt so curious about it that I let you four walk."

"This feeling…" My love muttered under his breath, the tone he used telling us how disturbed he was by it.

However, that feeling wasn't going to last very long, either. Eventually, one word began to superpose over the rest: Damu. As we walked on, we could feel heat and roars instead of screams, their fury penetrating through us. There was anger and hatred all around us and an unbearable din answered our pleas for a reason why this emotion was presented to us. It was the worst moment of Spira's history, the single event we were all taught to regret and a point in time Shuyin was all too familiar with…

"No! Damu… Please get out of there…" His voice prayed in the distance as the Shuyin in our company stayed himself, his back to us.

As the pyreflies mobilized, we found ourselves on a bloodied battlefield, countless bodies piled against broken weapons and banners of war. One lone warrior knelt at the center of twisted and burning debris, his eyes focused upward at a sky blackened by smoke. Further in the distance was an airship caught ablaze, its pilot guiding the massive craft into a large cannon machina and exploding upon impact, the flaming contraption pushing through several other machina before crashing into the ground.

"DAMU!" The younger Shuyin screamed, his form shifting all around us, echoing that one word again and again.

As we watched the scene playing before us, an unknown man in robes rushed forward, his staff casting Black Magic at an intercepting foe in his path. Next to him was a blonde-haired woman, petite and bearing twin daggers. As they reached the wreckage, the younger Shuyin also appeared nearby, each of them shocked at what had just occurred. The man collapsed to his knees first, pounding the ground with his embittered fist. Shuyin mouthed the word again, this time clearly noting it as the name of the fallen pilot.

However, it was the next name that caught us by surprise even more, "Keyakku…"

I turned to the girl standing between them, her eyes welling up with tears before she, too, collapsed in a heap, her yellow scarf draping the ground as she braids fell to shield her mournful visage from view. Instead of being the stranger we had been witnessing, though her likeness was unmistakable, my cousin was the one we now saw, seemingly affected by the pyreflies so much she began recalling events from her own past..

"Rikku!" I called to her, going to calm her in my embrace, "Why would she remember Keyakku at a time like this?"

Shuyin approached us, but his eyes fell upon his former self, "Because history repeats itself. Damusa was a dear friend to both Kirin and Jurama. It stands to reason that this Keyakku represents your time's Damusa in a similar fashion. But now isn't the time to suffer my darkness. We should keep moving."

"This… this is the Machina War, isn't it?" Paine gasped.

"Yes. In a manner of speaking." Shuyin replied, moving on.

As we made it into the next area of the cavern, Shuyin visibly tripped, though he caught himself before long and paused in thought. The angry roars and loud screams abruptly faded away, creating a sudden and uneasy silence. For a while, none of us moved, wondering why our guide had stopped only to realize that we were hearing something. Water was dripping all around even though none could be seen. There was the pitter patter of someone's footsteps, then a unexpected splash.

"So, you two are gone, also…" Shuyin's voice returned, this time creating a form appearing before a large and smoldering boulder.

At first, we couldn't be sure what he was talking about, though I tried guessing that it could have been a fayth. To that, our own Shuyin walked over, batting away the pyreflies with his sword and grumbled for us to keep moving. While the rest followed Paine and left, I couldn't help but linger a while longer, seeing the figment stand and depart. That was when it became clear. At the base of the boulder were the hands of two people, crushed underneath it. With a gasp, I quickly ran to catch up with the others.

The following series of tunnels would have even more phantoms in store for us. Many of them were just meaningless slaughter, what we all imagined had to be the casualties of the Machina War. The more painful ones showed innocent bystanders being gunned down along the streets of a great Machina City or an explosive charge leaving behind shattered bodies, some of them children. The armies of Bevelle marched and left death and destruction in their wake. However, as horrible as it was to be witnessing the war like this, they were mere background whispers to what else we were made to see.

"I want you to cut out her heart and squish it. Give the rest of her to me." A cold and sullen Rikku said, her arms holding that same man who was mourning the death of Damusa earlier.

Rather than our Rikku, this one didn't have the braids in her hair and was wearing much different clothing. Our Shuyin walked over slowly, looking down at the girl as she cried. We watched as she stroked the man's hair from his face, bowing her head close to his as she let out an anguished whimper.

"Don't worry, you can count on it…" Shuyin mouthed, his words seemingly echoes of what he had said then.

"I've never seen Kirin like this." Rikku said kneeling next to the so very similar-looking girl.

"No one was ever meant to." Shuyin replied, "It was supposed to be one of my worst memories, something no one should have ever seen. This was what I was afraid of, Rikku. That was why I didn't want you too close to the frontlines. Kirin suffered enough for both your lifetimes. I didn't want what happened to her to repeat despite all fate. But, even while I tried to keep you back, you wouldn't let me shelter you from it. You went out on your own to discover a solution for us. Just like Kirin was before, you're this team's spirit and unfaltering resilience… until this occurs."

"That's not going to happen this time!" She said in retort.

Shuyin took a moment, his eyes traveling back to the girl, Kirin, before nodding, "Let's keep going."

Just then, a second Shuyin appeared, "You're not going…"

"Shuyin, I have to go! I don't have any other choice." Another voice, Lenne's, resounded through the cavern as she appeared opposite.

"It doesn't matter! You're not going!"

"What is this?" I asked.

"It doesn't matter. Push on." Our Shuyin said, batting away the pyreflies blocking the path.

Unfortunately, just as he cleared one layer of them, another quickly grouped, forming another Lenne, "I thought you said to trust in Yu Yevon. What happened to that?"

Shuyin grunted, unsheathing his sword and slicing the image in two. The rest of us were surprised, the pyreflies having been in the form of his great love at the time. Still, moving right through her fading countenance, he made his way through the thinking cloud of the little creatures.

Off to the side, more phantasms of the couple manifested, continuing their conversation for us, "You're not leaving. That's it. I won't let you…"

Lenne's eyes lowered to the floor, but after taking a breath, she said, "You don't get to decide that…"

To this, the Shuyin figure growled, "So you'd rather let Yu Yevon determine whether you live or die?"

"I didn't say that!"

"Then what are you saying? You'd like to go out there and be killed by Bevelle? I won't allow it! I won't allow you to throw your life away like that!" The figure screamed, clenching his fists.

"Is this the day? Was this the day Lenne went off to the frontlines?" I asked.

"A month prior." Shuyin answered, "Yu Yevon called all the summoners to the frontlines in the Calm Lands. He called them there as Zanarkand's last stand. Sacrifices. They were going to be nothing more than sacrifices."

"Hey, we're past that, remember?" My love told him, going over to pat him on the back.

"Yea..."

"What do you want me to do?" The Lenne apparition asked, "Bevelle will attack us whether or not I go with the other summoners. Would you rather see our home destroyed?"

"No! I'll find a way! I'll find a way to take down Bevelle and keep Zanarkand safe. I won't lost any more of my friends!" Our Shuyin suddenly burst out, stepping in for his image.

"You can't have everything! Don't act like a child! If you want Zanarkand to be safe, you'll have to let me go. You can't have both at the same time!"

"She was right all along. I tried so hard to find a way to stop Bevelle, but in the end, not only did I not save it, I couldn't save Lenne either. However, you did, didn't you?" Shuyin said, turning to the dream of the fayth.

"What?"

"You saved this world and you did it without sacrificing your Lenne." He told him, patting him on the shoulder before pressing on.

Behind us, we could still here the shouting, the argument that led them to their fate, "Save Zanarkand? And for how long is that going to last? We've tried fighting Bevelle head on! Damusa lost his LIFE because we fought head on! Do you think I want the next body I find to be yours? We can't keep this war going the way it has been. Nothing'll ever change that way! All we'll be accomplishing is losing more and more lives and FOR WHAT?"

There was a sound of glass shattering and Lenne's gasp, but we decided to move on, knowing that nothing good was going to come from watching the shadow's machinations.

"Unfortunately, Lenne's image followed us, reappearing next to Shuyin almost as if to taunt him, "Shuyin, I know you don't want anybody else to die like we saw Damusa die. I know you don't want anybody else to feel all the pain that Areth is going through, but there's nothing you can do about it. Bevelle is overwhelming us and Yu Yevon is just trying to make sure that we hold them off for as long as we can."

"For all the good that it did. Traitors, schemes, a plan to be immortalized, that was the outcome of that train of thought." Shuyin growled, waving away the pyreflies.

"I… I've gotta go…" We heard his voice whisper amidst the walls.

"Shuyin…" Lenne's saddened voice whispered.

"Don't worry… I'll come back. If I'm gone too long, I'll… I'll write to you…"

"SHUYIN!"

Clutching my love tightly, we kept going into the caves, deeper and deeper with Shuyin leading us, Paine and Nooj by his side. It was strange seeing them like that. Two years ago, it had been Shuyin as a mad unsent who turned Paine into the stoic warrior she was and tormented Nooj until only a short while ago. Now, it would seem they were kindred spirits, each with a need to erase the shadow from their lives.

Further now inside, the even the light of Fire wasn't enough to keep the area lit. However, our group remained totally visible by some unnatural presence. The shadow wanted us all present and aware of each other's fright and discomfort. More so, it wanted its host to feel the pressure of guiding so many lives haunted by his past, more incentive to give in and let himself be consumed. The next area we entered was a large and long hall, only revealed to us at a glance when we first arrived, a horde of pyreflies lighting the walls straight to the end. They would create a barrier behind us, forcing us to move on in the dark, sounds of whimpers and desperate cries melding into the hum of the air. Finally, after a few minutes within the tunnel, light emanated from the side, the pyreflies forming a dilapidated balcony of some sort, water pooling at our feet and streaming along the floor of the cave. There was a man behind the rail of the balcony, sprawled against what looked like a ramp, its railing cradling the man's back as his vacant eyes stared upward.

"ROTHEL!"

Pyreflies rushed to the man's side, taking him up by the shoulders. As the Shuyin formed picked him up, blood spewed from the back of his head, staining the water a deep red. That Shuyin visibly paled and pulled the man to the side, shaking him gently at first in a futile attempt to wake him until he realized that wasn't going to work. He shouted and yelled at him, punching him as he did as if ignoring the reality of the situation.

"You can't die! Do you understand me? I said you are not dying!" He screamed, pounding away at the dead man's chest.

"This is…" My love began to say, stepping closer to the scene.

"Ignore." Our Shuyin simply said, walking on by himself.

"Is this it?" My love asked me instead, "Is this when his Zanarkand died?"

"I don't know. Look at all the rubble around them. What did he go through?" I uttered, feeling tears well up in my eyes.

"Like Shuyin said, we have to keep going. It's only going to get harder now and if we stop, we'll probably be taken just like the Crimson Squad. For Shuyin's sake, we can't let that happen." Rikku said, pulling at my arm.

Just before I could move, I saw the mirage Shuyin lift his friend by the collar, the sudden jerk forcing his eyes shut, which only prompted Shuyin to panic more, "No! Don't you dare close your eyes on me! WAKE UP!" But before long, he had to accept the truth of the matter that his friend was gone, crumbling down against his body in tears, "Please… please wake up…"

The rest of the tunnel showed us the blitz stadium of Zanarkand in shambled with Shuyin searching tirelessly for his friends, bodies of several victims littering our way. Eventually, the sheer number of pyreflies manipulated the terrain of the tunnel into the upper deck of the stadium, the illusory Shuyin traveling beside us on his search for his friends. This eventually led us to a large pit just outside of the tunnel where the pyreflies manifested it into a demolished area of the stadium's upper deck overlooking the Sphere Pool apparatus out in front of it, its mechanism damaged far beyond repair. Even as our Shuyin scanned for our next steps, the rest of us couldn't help but watch the illusion climb down haphazardly to the bottom, where the pyreflies began revealing more of the stadium's lowest foundations with each step he made. In the end, it took him to a large pool, the center of which lay a girl, what was left of her.

Just as we managed to see who it was, the pit suddenly came to us and we found ourselves right next to them, Shuyin himself eying the change in surrounding curiously. As I was closest to him, he pulled at my arm for me and the others to stop our marvels and gandering at a past we'd never understand, but as with the others, I felt compelled to participate.

The Shuyin created by the pyreflies knelt beside the girl, now clearly the broken body of Kirin, nearly torn to shreds by whatever it was that killed her. It was difficult to look at her, her face so closely resembling my cousin, but even then, I couldn't turn away.

"Ki... rin…" He said in such a weak and pitiful voice, looking at her, "What has Bevelle done to you…"

I could feel my heart breaking as I witnessed it. It was so unusual to see this man, who I had encountered in my nightmares, who had terrified me so much in my last journey in such a state. He sounded lost and weary, even fiber of his being telling him to give up as he knelt beside her, rocking her gently in his arms.

"You'll be okay, Kirin… Everything'll be fine… You're going to be with Ju and Damu and see a huge field of flowers…" He whispered to her, his voice cracking as his soul tried to justify all the events that he had been forced to endure.

While we shouldn't have been able to divulge so much from just watching this unfold before us, the pyreflies of the Den of Woe had long since penetrated us, filling us with every emotion that was experienced by these cavern walls. While Shuyin wept, we wept. The only one to be unaffected was the original himself, as he had already grown hard from it and was still ready to fight even as his younger self cowered at his fate.

Shaking, he gripped Kirin's body tightly, trying to hold back his grief to the best of his ability, but that eventually gave out. In an open display of anger and anguish, Shuyin loosed a sorrowful roar at the night sky above, the very sound of it striking a heavy blow on our hearts. Rikku took it the hardest, falling to her knees in a fit of sobs. Paine went to her side while Nooj looked away. Meanwhile, before I could end up on the floor beside my cousin, my loving support came to my side, shielding me from the scene with his embrace.

"Shuyin…" I said with a raspy voice.

"Ignore." Came his cold reply.

However, the vision only grew worse, "Get some rest now… I'll take you to where you wanted to go… Remember? When we were kids… You told me that you wanted to see all of Zanarkand when you leave for the Farplane…"

Before he could say anything else, the illusion's voice broke again with a whimper and a bitter gasp, "Bevelle's taken everything from me… Bevelle's taken you away… There's nothing left for me…"

"I've had enough of this!" Our Shuyin growled, taking his sword and stabbing it into the image to scatter the pyreflies, "We aren't here to wallow in grief. We're here to make sure this never happens again. If you don't get yourselves together, my past will be the least of your worries. The shadow will defeat us if we're lost in his mind games so get up or get…"

"… out of my way…" Another illusion finished his statement, now changing the cave into the open night sky of Zanarkand.

The air smelled of ash and there were so many machina destroying the city. Everywhere you could see, there were people fleeing, crawling, dying, and yet the machines kept on going, committed to their horrid acts of destruction. Meanwhile, the mirage Shuyin lost his patience with them, growling another order for them to clear from his path, but they didn't listen. Instead, they were alerted to his presence and launched an attack, something that only served to infuriate their adversary more.

"I remember this." My love said abruptly, gazing at the actions of his originator.

"You do?" I asked.

"Yea, this looks almost exactly like the night I was pulled out of my Zanarkand." He explained, turning to Shuyin, "Is this real?"

To this, he nodded, "This was my last night in Zanarkand, too."

"But you're alone. I had Auron. What…"

"My Auron died long ago. By this point in time, I was alone. All I had left to keep me going was…"

"Where is she? Tell me…" The illusion hissed, his tone dangerously volatile, "Tell me where the summoner is!"

"… Lenne." Shuyin finished.

"We didn't know. We thought it was only losing Lenne that made you into that apparition." I told him.

"Understandably. By the time I awoke as an unsent, Lenne was really all that was left. When I died, my last thought was that it was too soon, that I had left Lenne alone in Vegnagun's chamber. I felt I had to keep fighting, had to hold on and wait for her, but I died. Some part of me kept thinking that I needed to find her, that I needed to show her I was sorry for what I failed to do."

"Now you know you never failed anyone." Rikku said, wiping away her tears and clutching Shuyin's arm tight.

With a smile, Shuyin let out a sigh, "Of course. Only the shadow hasn't gotten past that yet, which was why I wanted you to ignore my past. He knows how painful it was and how hard it was for me to forget, but those memories are still fresh in his mind and they are strong, stronger than ever since he's nothing but the pyreflies I left behind. I was capable of holding back my despair with my conscious thought that allowed me to move on with my plans. The reason he hasn't gone off to destroy Spira like I did has to be because of that. He can't. All he can think about is the past and how much it hurts."

"So it's trapped in its hate and sadness with no way out, right?" Rikku chimed in.

"Right, which is why it needed to do this. It needed me to be reminded of it, falter, and in my own despair, seek it out and give it what it needs to be complete again."

Then, as if listening to our digressions, the illusion turned to us with his sword pointed at Shuyin. Our Shuyin noted that his fight would take him to Yu Yevon's headquarters, then to Gagazet, and finally, to Bevelle where he would end up here. However, as he said this, we all realized that there were no more screams, no more wails, no more daunting emotions creeping up on us. This Shuyin standing with his sword held out, we figured out just then, was no illusion.

"If I'm not mistaken, the trip down memory lane is over." Paine said, pulling out her sword.

"Alright, time to dish some of that pain out." Rikku added, getting into position.

"With interest!" Gippal said in compliment, readying Grinder.

"Good bye and good riddance." My love exclaimed, letting loose the Brotherhood.

"Hope you never write." Nooj continued off, loading his gun.

"Let's finish this." I noted, equipping my Twin Bees.

Shuyin walked up to the shadow, his neck almost touching the tip of its sword, "Time's up."

However, the apparition didn't even flinch as we surrounded him. After we had ensured a full perimeter around it, Shuyin scanned the area for any sign of a trap, eying the still shadow suspiciously and curiously as to its lack of reaction. After nodding to us to keep us at attention, ready for any possible traps, he chose to act. With his own sword, Shuyin knocked away the unsent's and sliced upward, bisecting its length. It was then that he understood what had happened. Even though it appeared as if this illusion of him was actually the shadow, Dark Shuyin was still elsewhere and we had been circling the wrong person. When the pyreflies of the illusion vanished, something smothered the Fire and the light keeping our persons lit also faded.

In the distance, echoing against the walls of the cave, the true Dark Shuyin spoke, "Yea, for you."

With that, the entire Den of Woe began to shake, the tremors causing debris to begin falling from the ceiling. Light returned to normal and allowed us to witness the crumbling cave as the true shadow appeared at our exit.

"Share my despair…" He said, destroying our way out.

"Now we've done it!" Rikku shouted, looking for another way out.

"We'll just have to make an exit!" My love cried out, rushing to where the entrance had been and slicing at the rocks.

"Well, isn't that a good plan." Paine added, but shook her head, heading over to help with Nooj and Gippal.

"Maybe we should find another exit?" Rikku asked us.

"There isn't going to be one. But we can make it out. It'll just take time. Provide the others with cover!" I said, spherechanging to Alchemist.

"Right!" My cousin acknowledged, going Gun Mage.

"He's still around. I can feel him." Shuyin noted, keeping his sword ready, "Keep your senses tuned. No need for surprises now."

Just as soon as he was done saying that, the light flickered again and a blue sword came down at me, deflected only by the quick draw of Rikku's Annihilator Blue Bullet. It directed itself at Shuyin next, but the warrior was ready to block it, holding it at bay while the shadow formed behind it.

"How much more do you intend to splinter yourself?" It asked him, pushing against his sword.

Shuyin only broke the hold and swiped at the unsent's legs, in turn allowing it to spread back into pyreflies. In the distance, growls were heard, followed by the appearance of a horde of fiends. My love took my place as an Alchemist and I quickly reverted to Gunner, firing Trigger Happy into as many as I could while Rikku loaded whatever rounds she could find, some of them pairing correctly with the type weaknesses of the fiends. Shuyin, on the other hand, took to using his Hit & Run and engaged the fiends directly. Eventually, the swarm was defeated, but we were all nearing our limits.

"This planet is crying. Can't you hear it anymore? Those pleas for mercy and an end ringing in my ears, have you deafened yourself to them?" The shadow enquired, its voice emanating from all corners.

"This world suffers, her cities crumble, her people die, so be it." Our Shuyin answered, much colder than I would have thought.

"How can you be so unsympathetic?"

"Because…" Shuyin began to say, walking a few steps forward before slamming his sword into the ground, revealing the shadow as it blocked the strike.

I rushed over with Rikku to capitalize, my guns aimed at its head as Rikku loaded another Blue Bullet. At my current angle, I could see that the unsent already attacked the others, my love kneeling down on one knee, his Alchemist's gun dismantled. Nooj and Gippal were both unconscious against the rock wall. Rikku launched Cry in the Night into our adversary, but like Shuyin was capable of in the past, it only absorbed the massive explosion into its sword. Before it could use the power in Force Rain, though, our Shuyin clashed swords with it and began absorbing the energy, the two of them fighting to keep a large enough amount of it for themselves. Eventually, the volatile energy erupted against both of them, sending Shuyin flying into the rocks with Nooj and Gippal while the unsent simply faded back into pyreflies, separating into two groupings before each of us, myself and Rikku. With Rikku, it took her weapon and forced her out of Gun Mage form. As for me, the shadow appeared just before me, pressing his palm against my chest and turning back into pyreflies. A moment later, I felt burning pain in my legs, the same as when we had fought the shadow last, and fell to my knees. When I put my hand to my leg, I felt the blood trickling from them and realized I had been shot, just like last time. I had fired two bullets at Shuyin only to have him deflect them back at me. Looking up, I found the shadow bearing down on me, its sword held firm to stab me through.

Before he reached, though, our Shuyin tackled him back into a pyrefly swarm, releasing his own sword to attack the apparition as it reappeared. He cartwheeled and flipped high, crashing his sword down into the unsent with Spin Cut, finally defeating it. Unable to mount any counterattacks, the unsent simply cowered beneath Shuyin's sword, mouthing one more question about his host's lack of pity.

"Your time has run its course. You've failed your mission countless times. To oblivion with you." Shuyin stated.

"My quest is not yet done."

"With your pitiful methods, it never will be."

"Why can't you understand? We have a debt to this world!" It screamed, its voice cracking.

"Why? Why does it fall on us to right the wrongs of this planet when all the rest live out their meaningless existence in blissful ignorance?" Our Shuyin responded, though his words were so very curious.

"Wasn't that what we felt before?"

"Look where that took us."

"That was our failure! We couldn't see the lies and mistakes. If we had been cleverer, divulged the secrets sooner…"

"It would've all ended the same."

"No! We would have found a way!" The shadow screamed, charging Shuyin and ramming its sword into him.

Shuyin only pushed back, sending the apparition into the ground again. He looked down at it almost as he had done with us in the Farplane, seeing the unsent as less that himself, as if an insect to a god. Rikku crawled close to me, checking my wounds as we both witnessed their final face-off. The apparition seethed with rage, but even so, Shuyin only looked at him. After a while, seeing as the unsent wasn't making a move, he turned his back and sheathed his sword, looking at his foe from the corner of his eye.

Unable to contain his anger any longer, the unsent rose up, intending to stab his host through. It was then that Shuyin said his final words to his darkness, "And it's over…"

From behind the shadow, Paine's blade penetrated through, pyreflies exploding from the wound and swirling around Shuyin. Lifting his hand to them, he absorbed each of them into himself, giving out a stifled snicker as he released them into the rocks and regained us our exit. Without waiting for us, he departed from the Den of Woe. Next to my side, I felt Rikku shiver and brought her close in my embrace. Paine spherechanged to Alchemist herself to cure us of our afflictions, helping my love up as Rikku helped me. Together we caught up with Shuyin outside. Once we were out, Shuyin called out more pyreflies from the cave, the creatures having been the only thing holding the Den of Woe. Without them, the former cavern collapsed into a grand chasm. Walking over to the new canyon, Shuyin took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Alas, I now possess these powers, the power to change the course of Spira's doomed existence once again." He said in a familiar tone.

The rest of us were taken aback by it, his voice resembling how he had been as an unsent, even stranger than the shadow had been. Had it succeeded after all? We hesitated to approach him, remembering that it was only Lenne that had been able to stop him before. If he had been possessed by the unsent, what could save him this time? Would he attempt to destroy Spira again?

"No…" Rikku suddenly said, her eyes looking downward as she stood next to me.

"Rikku?" Shuyin asked her, turning to face her.

"No… No!" She screamed, running toward Shuyin with haste.

Before he could react, Rikku thrust her daggers into his gut, pushing him off the edge and into the pit below. The rest of us were frozen in stunned awe as my cousin dropped to her knees in tears. Had he anticipated his failure? Was this how he chose to remedy it? And my poor cousin who had always supported him, how could he ask that of her? Now we were down a friend and couldn't even be sure it was worth the cost. Did we even defeat the shadow or did it possess Shuyin after all, completing itself in the process?

**Author's Note:** … *recalls* _Time to bid farewell to Dark Shuyin._ O.O;; Uh, guess not. What just happened? Can you tell? Has the shadow taken over Shuyin and gotten itself a body or was Shuyin really taken by the despair he felt? Well, there's always the third route: He might just have been leading the rest of the group on this entire time. What's the answer? Find out next time!


	36. On a Wing and a Prayer

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Hehe, you thought that was the end of Dark Shuyin, didn't you? Well, now we've got a problem. Just what happened? At the end of the last chapter, I provided an Author's Note suggesting three outcomes, but was that really it? After all, Shuyin did mention that there might have been something else going on and all this was just a distraction. Was he right? Was he wrong? Or am I just a bastard for pulling all this out my arse? =p

No reviews again, though. =\ Well, thankfully, I had this story marching about inside my mind for a long while and I really feel a need to get it out of me, but some opinions and reflections would still be nice to have.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 35: On a Wing and a Prayer**

Tidus

I didn't really want to believe it. Actually, I knew I shouldn't. All throughout that time, Shuyin was worried about succumbing to his shadow. To be really honest here, all of us were much more likely to be possessed by the thing than he was. Something just didn't add up.

Yuna would make it even less likely to be the truth, "Shuyin was possessed? But he was the only one of us that wasn't affected by the despair."

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked, though I was thinking the same thing.

"The way the shadow possesses is by weakening the person's spirit through despair and regret. That way, he can't hold off the evil thoughts of the shadow anymore and has to obey." She explained.

"If that's the case, it really doesn't make sense. Shuyin was the one that wanted us not to think too much about the sad moments of his past. He was the one that didn't want us to be overcome by our sorrow and regret." I said.

"Maybe he was telling us all the truth. Maybe he really does believe he has the power again." Nooj suggested.

"You really think he could have reverted?" Paine and Yuna both asked.

Nooj walked over to the navigations grid, saying, "Regardless of whether he has or not, we can't let him reach Vegnagun. I must return to Bevelle and seek our Baralai. We'll make sure Shuyin doesn't reclaim that machina and start that mess again. I guess I have to leave the rest to you."

"Don't worry." Paine told him, helping him map a course to Bevelle before calling for a crewman to patch a line to the Praetor.

"With Vegnagun under constant surveillance, we'll have at least one eye out for the guy. If he goes after it, we'll be ready for him." I said, hoping to cheer up the rest of them.

"That's assuming old Baralai has what it takes to hold him off. We didn't exactly have the best countermeasures ready for him last time, even after all the chances we had then." Gippal noted, polishing his weapon.

"Well, if he's really possessed, the shadow will be going after the machina. It figures it wouldn't have changed after all this time. It'll still be caught in the same trends." Paine put in her word, "Even if Baralai's not ready, he can put up a fight long enough for us to get there. It's better than nothing."

"What did Baralai say?" Yuna asked her.

"I don't know. We contacted Bevelle, but I was only there for the priest. Bevelle's community is in chaos. Nobody can figure out why the tower was destroyed and what that fiend was that attacked. People had been hoping both times that there was an Eternal Calm waiting ahead, but now they are 'disillusioned'. Without Baralai there, they feel as if it's a clear sign of the end."

"Should we gather them together and explain the situation?" Yuna asked.

"That won't be necessary." Nooj replied, walking back to us.

"Nooj." Gippal said.

"We're almost at Bevelle. As Mevyn of the Youth League in conjunction with New Yevon, I think I may be the only viable solution. I'll go and calm the masses for the time being. Yaibal has informed me that Shelinda is willing to keep those old coots at bay for the time being. Baralai is waiting for me at Vegnagun's chamber. We'll come up with a good formation to hold back Shuyin in case he comes."

We were so busy deciding how to take him down since he was possessed and gone to the other side, but nobody was trying to come up with a plan in case he was strong enough to stay himself in there. Maybe when the shadow took him, there was still something left that was fighting it back and we needed to help that part of him win. If we were to hold out any more, then Shuyin might really be gone. After all, he had such a good opportunity to kill us all back in the Den of Woe, but he got us out. I really didn't believe it was Dark Shuyin doing that. I mean, we were all still back there when he left. Why didn't he just collapse the hole then?

"Do you all think that Shuyin's just gone?" Rikku finally spoke up, having been hiding the whole time, cowering in the back corner.

I was the first to turn, hoping that what she said would get through and we could start talking about a way to rescue the guy, not kill him. Before anybody could say anything, though, we reached Bevelle. While the airship landed and Nooj left with some of the men he had on board, the rest of us remained silent. Rikku didn't say anything else, sitting on the floor with her knees hugged to her chest. What happened at the Den of Woe was definitely hardest on her. If what we were saying was right, every bit of faith she had had in the guy was for nothing. He failed again and was taken by something he hated. But I didn't believe it either and I hoped the time we spent quiet was going to be enough to have everybody really think about it. Did we really want to believe that Shuyin was so weak?

"He didn't want us to feel so badly about his past." Yuna said.

"Yea, he didn't. He was trying to keep us from feeling the despair." I noted, walking to the center of the group.

"There's always the chance he was doing that because he was feeling it, too." Paine suggested, crossing her arms.

"He probably was, but that doesn't change the fact that he knew it was a weakness. He was ready for it. I think he knew exactly what the shadow was planning so he got himself ready. It was too much all at once, but he's still fighting it. Remember, he saved us from the collapsing cave."

"Okay, so what do we do?" Gippal wondered, walking forward.

Just then, an Al Bhed approached us, saying, "Gippal, sir, message from Djose."

"What is it?"

Led by the Al Bhed, we followed Gippal to the comsphere console and saw Rin. While I was about to greet the guy, Paine pulled me back, shaking her head with a scowl. They would end up explaining to me in a whisper that Rin was building defective machina and covering for them, hiding the evidence showing their malfunction as a way of promoting his financial investments in them and his pull on the rising number of entrepreneurs on Spira. He began telling Gippal that he wanted an audience with him to talk about future endeavors, extra resources to the excavations missions in Bikanel and funding to extend research and development. He was planning to extend an open invitation to archaeologists and historical analysts along with any available excavator or prospector to begin an initiative into recreating the machina of the past that made Spira so great. Gippal seemed bothered by all of the advertising, unsure of where he wanted to be. As the message was actually bounced from the Calm Lands, Paine assured Gippal that seeing to Rin's "initiative" would be best because the rest of us could take care of this situation, but the Machine Faction was the leading force Spira needed to handle Rin's big business plans and keep them under control.

"So, we'll make a quick pit stop in the Calm Lands before moving on." Paine told us, looking around before focusing our attention behind where Rikku was slowly making her way off the bridge, using the wall for support, "Something tells me the downtime will only do us some good."

After we landed, Gippal took off, bringing with him some of the crew who were also members of the Machine Faction. He also asked Cid to look after Rikku, but the guy said quiet was what she really needed since this was her daughter and all. Rikku was dealing with issues that overwhelmed her the way she normally did, but we never really saw it because we were so busy dealing with Yuna's Pilgrimage. Thinking back on it, Rikku was always this way, just that Shuyin let her show it more than the rest of us ever did. He only did to make up for not having done so with Kirin before her.

"Since we have the excuse, why not go over what's been goin' on?" Cid suggested, joining us when Gippal left.

"Well, something brought Seymour and Areth back from the dead and woke up Dark Shuyin from the Den of Woe. Shuyin thought him being back was linked to it, too, but we're not sure anymore. What we know is that Areth came back to guilt Shuyin back into being the unsent so he could kill the guy for good and that Dark Shuyin wanted that to happen, to begin with, probably because he wanted a physical body to go after Vegnagun." I told him, going over to the console to rest myself against it.

Yuna walked over and put a hand on my back before adding, "Shuyin knew what they wanted from him and thought the best way was to confront it. When we were in the Den of Woe, he looked like he was ready. The shadow replayed all the worst events in his life, but he kept pushing forward. Then, we defeated the shadow once and for all, but the pyreflies went into Shuyin. They might have been able to possess him."

"You sure this kid ain't just pull the wool over your eye?" Cid blurted out in his usual tactless fashion.

The rest of us took the suggestion to heart, having all been fighting that urge to say it was really just Shuyin being Shuyin. Manipulation wasn't exactly foreign to the guy, but I didn't believe it this time. I honestly wanted to trust my originator and say he was the victim in all this. Just looking back at everything that happened to the guy was enough for me to understand him and anything wrong he might have done after that.

"He's a warrior. Pride alone should've kept him from going back there. I believe in him." Paine said, breaking the silence that had fallen, "If he's fighting it, we have to be there for him and help push the shadow back into the corner."

"We'll fight shadow with light one more time." Yuna added.

"Agreed, so what's our next move?" I asked.

"Find him. What else? We'll need to figure out where he'd go." Paine suggested.

"And where would that be? I think we've already exhausted every location on Spira just hunting after the shadow." I enquired of her, location having been the thing I was stuck on anyway.

"Do you think he'd go back to Zanarkand?" Yuna asked.

"Doubtful. Given how many bad memories he had there that the shadow could use against him, it'd be too risky to rely on it to help him." Paine noted.

"He's going to Gagazet." Rikku's voice suddenly interrupted, having returned.

We all turned to her, her usually hyper behavior shut down from how upset she was. It was unsettling to see her like that what with her always being the upbeat and hopeful one. It reminded me of how she broke down at that mountain before, when we could see Zanarkand looming in the distance. Nobody ever paid those moments any mind. We just figured she was young and didn't understand or couldn't. Nobody ever took the time to think that she was just a couple of years younger than us and was what kept our spirits high when we were down. If it wasn't for Shuyin realizing what he did to Kirin in his time, Rikku still wouldn't have had anyone taking her seriously.

"How can you be sure he'll go there?" Paine asked her, Yuna going to her side.

"Because Kirin's there." She told us, "Because that's the only thing left of his family."

"That makes sense." Yuna said, "Kirin's death was one of the worst things we saw down there in the cave. Maybe he's gone to Gagazet to reminisce?"

"No, like I showed you before, Kirin's body is up there. Don't you remember?"

"Oh right! I think I was still more concerned with Shuyin being back at that point." Yuna admitted with a weak smile.

"So we're agreed. Gagazet it is." Paine decided, speaking for us.

"That's perfect then. We just dumped the pirate out over here in this here Calm Lands, we could get to Gagazet in no time!" Cid announced, turning to his crew, "Did ya hear that? Gagazet pronto! We'll have ya there in a jiffy!"

The short trip to the mountain was mostly quiet. Yuna and Paine needed to cheer Rikku up for a change and I was really busy thinking about what I would say to the guy. I was pretty sure it would fall onto me to get him back. I was the guy that brought him out of his "I hate myself" kick, after all. I played around with talking about myself as an example of what the people of Zanarkand thought Shuyin could be, but I was worried Shuyin would just go back to that "I hate myself" kick during the comparison. If I went with Kirin, he might look at Rikku and freak out. Whatever I did, I had to understand that the shadow was going to hear it, too, and use it against him as much as it could.

When the airship reached the summit, we all jumped ship and walked the rest of the way to where the Master Summon was. Shuyin was blatantly there, kneeling over the pool that used to be my home. He looked so sullen and lost, his eyes staring unblinking into the water at the girl underneath. Rikku stayed back, comforted by my Yuna, but Paine went off ahead of us to go to his side.

"Shuyin, are you still in there?" She asked him.

When he looked up at her, Rikku suddenly equipped her daggers, scared that the shadow might still have control. Shuyin's eyes didn't blink even as she stared at Paine, then us. Then, his eyes focused on me and he got back on his feet, Paine holding onto his arm as he did. Turning to her, I noticed a faint smile before the action took over. Using his pyreflies, he grabbed Paine and hurled her into the Master Summon's stone wall and pinned her there. Rikku pulled Yuna behind her and guarded against any oncoming attacks, but I quickly held her off, slowly walking up to Shuyin to see if I could defuse the situation.

"Shuyin, you're better than this. Think about it, Blitz Ace. You're the hope of Zanarkand, aren't you? Areth's still on the loose. Don't you want to stop him?" I said, hoping a few key terms might do the trick.

"Zanarkand…" He replied in a low voice, "Zanarkand was betrayed."

"That doesn't matter. Areth is here now. Do you want him to betray Spira?"

"Areth? Betray Spira?" Areth doesn't have what it takes to betray Spira." He retorted.

"But he is back regardless of what he can or can't do. Don't you want to rid Spira of him for good? Don't let the shadow stop you from…"

Before I could finish, Shuyin's expression suddenly changed, his mouth curling into a sneer, "Do you honestly think I could be so easily controlled?"

"What?" All of us said, except Rikku only tightened her stance.

Looking back over at Yuna and Rikku, I struggled with what to say until I thought, "Even if you say you aren't being controlled, tell me, what would Lenne say now?"

"Lenne?" He seemed to stammer when he said her name.

"Hmph, you think she can save you now?" The treacherous voice of Areth blew in, all of us turning to see him walking up the path behind Yuna.

"What's the meaning of this?" Yuna asked.

"Did you really think I wanted _this_ Shuyin gone? Silly mortals. He and I are on common ground." He stated.

"It's you who antagonize our goals." Shuyin told us, sending Paine into me.

Catching the girl, I looked back at him and asked, "Shuyin, stop letting the shadow do this to you!"

He only shook his head, "You lot are so easily fooled, it's embarrassing."

"He's not Shuyin." Rikku growled.

"Oh, but I assure you he is." Areth confirmed.

"Then he doesn't intend on going back to the Farplane because Lenne would never forgive him."

"Hah, by the time we're done, there won't be a Farplane to return to."

"What does that mean?" I asked, turning my attention to him.

"It means the end. Vegnagun or not." Shuyin answered, "Areth, it's time to go. Let these fools truly comprehend their irrelevance to the grand design."

"How poetic of you."

"Not poetic. Honest." He replied, turning himself into pyreflies and soaring off into the distance.

Laughing, Areth winked at us before doing the same. True to his expectations, the four of us were left wondering just how it could be. We finally trusted in him only to be betrayed. This entire mission, was it all part of his sick game?

**Author's Note:** Areth/Shuyin abrupt team-up: Tee hee ^_^

So what _possessed_ (hehe) Areth to side with the shadow/Shuyin? Or what possessed Shuyin to side with Areth? How are they going to cope with one of their greatest weapons now and once again an enemy?

What do you think they should do? =p Where do you lot think I'm taking this? For those who know, is this just more Zera being Zera? ^_^;; Leave a thought in review and find out if you're right, Next Time!


	37. Dellegiance

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Last time, Shuyin revealed to the group that he was, in fact, the one who won out in the end. He had full control of the pyreflies that went into him and wasn't possessed by anything. Dark Shuyin was defeated and/or had never been a threat to Shuyin's existence. Just how long had he been leading them on about his return? Had he actually fabricated the entire thing as a sick joke?

You might be asking yourselves, "Well Zera, what about all those chapters in Shuyin's point of view that show him upset by Areth's return or Seymour somehow being resurrected or all the other inner thoughts he shared in those chapters that made him appear totally reformed?" Well, not to give anything away, but just what makes you think there wasn't a piece of the old Shuyin from Eternal Love that was subconsciously present this entire time? There were many chapters not in his perspective where he performed a few impossible feats. Did no one ever think to account for them? To be honest, the real Shuyin was trapped in the Den of Woe for one thousand years and then, at the end of my last fiction, he departed into the Farplane with Lenne, his pyreflies scattered to the wind. It's not entirely fathomable that he could just return as he was in life, is it? What's to say it wasn't the residual pyreflies he left in the Farplane or with the fayth that brought him back? Hah, didn't count on that, did you? Of course, that's not to say that's what's really going on, but it could be. Hmm, this note is long. =o

And then there's Areth. The first question should really be, exactly why did he come back all of a sudden to cause trouble when it had to be that he's been an unsent just as long as Shuyin was? Was he out for brunch during the events of FFX-2? It was reasoned several times that he just wanted to defeat the "real" Shuyin, but what stopped him from going to the Den of Woe? What made him think the shadow wasn't the real Shuyin anyway? Even if that was the reason, just what made the Shuyin at the start of the fiction more real? xD Yes, I've been leading you lot all around a circle. Now, that we've gotten past that, if he wasn't trying to "defeat the real Shuyin", just what is he after? In this next chapter, we'll see if Yuna can figure it out.

By the way, I've recently rewatched the end of the latest Doctor Who series so this chapter has been influenced by the events of that episode and many many repetitions of the Doctor's new theme, _Every Star, Every Planet_.

Wow at haboo's MEGA review. xD! On Gippal, how did you think I envisioned the RP's Gippal anyway? =p On the Berserkeer DS, I felt that the point of the dressphere was to unleash the primal instincts and rage of the girls, hence the beastial attacks and Berserk Red Magic. For a confused Shuyin who is lashing out, I supposed Berserk's effect probably would have kicked in immediately and, since he was out of focus, the feral nature of the dressphere would have consumed him. That and it shows, like you mentioned, that he hasn't healed from going to the Farplane, only forgotten about his scars for the time being. Also, as you noted, it foreshadows what I came up with in Chapter 35. xD No, Byakko was just one of my favourite legendary beasts. The entire legend of the four guardians is present in my Velani story, but I doubt I'll ever write that one out. =p For now, it's only outlined. Also, that's technically pure fiction and doesn't even include Bahamut (yet?) so I guess it could actually be unrelated to Final Fantasy except that I deliberately modeled it after Final Fantasy to be my second Final Fantasy. xD I'm surprised you didn't notice the foreshadowing in Chapter 28 when Yuna notes his "high level of Black Magic" when he's never used magic before in his life and only accessed the Black Mage DS twice thus far. (Which, btw, he uses Ultimas then, too. ^_~) But it's good you noticed that Shuyin was hiding his past. Although, you did take note of his strange power spikes. =o "HE POSSESSED YUNA" This was the reaction I was waiting for from my readers when that happened! xD Sadly, nobody reviewed. *cries* The thank you from Fayth will come about when the day is done, not before. *hint hint* I liked the reaction to Shuyin's second death. xD

That "four headed think" is Major Numerus, the side boss that you can face in FFX-2 Last Mission. =p I just gave it a back story and also changed it to a stronger version that can fly and use Strongest Shinra's special attack.

And now, we return you to our feature programming. Enjoy! =D

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 36: De-llegiance**

Yuna

How did we end up here? Lost, confused, and utterly disoriented at the recent turn of events, we had no choice but to depart Mount Gagazet and come up with another plan. When he first revealed to us that he was completely in control of himself and only chose to betray us, I didn't want to believe it. He had been so supportive and felt so genuine when he saw that Areth was back. Everything that we'd been through in these recent times made it feel like a surreal nightmare. Did he really turn on us or was that the shadow tricking us? I honestly wanted to believe the latter, but something told me that was a simple delusion. In truth, it was the most likely outcome of all this. Shuyin suddenly showing up in Besaid without any idea how he returned and then going on a crusade to make up for his past sins? That was such a fairytale and we still fell for it in the end. Shuyin was somehow able to bring himself back from the Farplane and even bring back Seymour and Areth with him. Some of his impossible stunts seemed more feasible if he had planned it all.

"How could he do it?" Rikku asked, in tears once again the moment we entered the airship.

"His mind was plagued by those things we saw in the Den of Woe for one thousand years. Even at his best, I don't think there's any way he could have come back from that. The unfortunate fate he was given destroyed his good soul and left him a monster forever." I told my cousin, rubbing her back to ease her sobs, but I knew what I was saying wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"We'll send him to the Farplane. When he's there, the nurturing atmosphere should save him eventually."

"It didn't help us last time when he was in there." Paine interjected, walking back over.

"We'll have to defeat him like we did Seymour. Fight him until there's nothing left." My love suggested.

I could feel Rikku shivering in my arms and decided to help her to her cabin. When we entered the room, Rikku decided that she'd rather be alone and shut the door on me. I could hear her whimpers and quiet sobs coming from the other side of it, but I knew she needed to be alone. Before I left her, though, I asked two of the nearby crew to stand by in case she needed something. Walking back to the bridge was horrible without her. Before the Den of Woe, we were confident. We had everything under control and were about to clear another obstacle. It was supposed to be the end of the shadow and then we'd be up to Areth, but now, not only was the problem of the shadow still there, we lost his better half along the way. My cousin was turned from a happy and jovial youthful spirit into this sullen mess despairing in her own Den of Woe.

"Why are we going there?" My love asked aloud when I arrived on the bridge.

"Until Nooj sets up permanent headquarters in Bevelle, the Youth League is still at Mushroom Rock Road." Paine explained, though I wasn't sure why we were going to the Youth League.

"I mean, do we really need to go to the Youth League?" He replied, voicing my own thoughts.

"Right now, they're the only military we have not on duty. We should consult with them and figure out a plan. The crusaders in their ranks might still have some of their old battle machina."

"Then, we should contact Lucil or Elma first. There's no point in going there on a fool's errand."

"If we do that, shouldn't we go to Bevelle? Nooj sent Lucil and Elma to aid Baralai in defending Bevelle's Underground, remember?" I said, announcing my presence.

"Bevelle then. We can tell Baralai he was right all along." Paine said, "Should put a smile on his face."

"No, we should hold off then. From what I've been hearing about the guy, he's not going to take it lightly. How much do you wanna bet he'll want to come along with us?"

"True. Of the two, even though Nooj was taken over for so long, Baralai's been the more sensitive one. He'll overreact over the news." Paine agreed.

"We should just stop at the Youth League unannounced then. Even if it doesn't do us any good, we might benefit from the time off and if Shuyin or Areth come looking for us, we'll know right away. It's a good plan." I suggested.

"Like Yuna said then." Paine accepted, walking over to the navigations and setting a course.

"You think this Shuyin kid'll be much trouble?" Cid asked us, walking over since he had overheard our conversation.

"The worst." I told him, the memories of my previous quest returning.

I went over to hug my love close, remembering how much I had wanted him there then. It was the only thing missing back then, which gave me some hope that we'd get out of this. Still, another part of me was afraid I'd lose him again, having lost him the last time because of a Spira-shattering pandemic. It was like this life was all Spira ever had in store for us, to live on the brink with every moment a possible road to the Farplane. Even back in Shuyin's time, this seemed to be the case. Otherwise, we wouldn't be dealing with it now.

"Maybe this is our fate." I absentmindedly said.

"No," My love immediately retorted, "There's a dawn coming at the end of all this darkness. Just wait for it with me. Push on!"

"How can you say that when everything seems to be working against us at every turn?"

"Them's girl talk, Yuna. Men like us know, whatever life gives ya, take it all in stride, am I right?" My uncle added, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"You see what's already happened to Rikku. Do you really think anything good will come from this and actually last?"

"Yea, I do." Was his plain reply.

"Yuna, there has to be an ending to this craziness. I'm not going to believe that we're just meant for this. I won't. We saved Spira and everyone on it two years ago. These jokers can't compare to that and you already beat that Shuyin once. It'll just take time, but once those two are gone, that'll be it. We'll get to live our lives in peace."

As much as I wanted to believe him, it just didn't seem possible. This road to salvation was far too long to believe there was an end in sight. Two years ago, we ended a thousand years of suffering for the people of Spira, but it didn't start there as we clearly saw from Shuyin's past. And likewise, it wasn't over yet anyway. It was only a short while ago that Paine, Rikku, and I defeated Shuyin for the first time and thought we had reunited him with Lenne. Now, not only was he back, he brought his past with him, resurrected our past nightmare, and put Spira in danger again. Really now, could anything convince me that we were going to end this one day?

The flight back to Mushroom Rock Road proved fruitless. Before, when Shuyin and Areth left, it seemed they had their own sights set on the Youth League. The only signs left that there had been an organization there to begin with were a few scraps of metal from broken guard machina and the torn banner of the group. We didn't find any survivors, what remained of the members there too awful to describe. Just like before, Shuyin was a step ahead of us. He must have counted on us to seek out the Youth League for help and set out to take any advantage away from us.

"Look at this." My love uttered, kneeling over the carnage.

"They didn't stand a chance." Paine added.

"Hmph, well I'll be. What kind of low-down scoundrel goes around killing so many like this?" Cid growled lowly, crushing some of the burned debris in his hand.

"We should perform a sending for them." I said, spherechanging to White Mage.

I could see my blitzer cringe when I said it. He never wanted me to have to do that again, to relive that horrid time as a summoner during the corrupt age of Yevon. The sending, however, I felt was something good that came out of my training, even if the reasons we learned for it were completely fabricated. I danced and relieved the pyreflies left in their bodies, but try as I might, nothing seemed to be happening. The bodies were just remaining there as they were. That's when I noticed it. There was a distinct absence about them. Even with my heightened spiritual senses in the White Mage dressphere, I couldn't sense any pyreflies around. None of the stragglers were floating about, either. What happened here?

"What's wrong?" Paine asked me when I reverted to Gunner.

"Their pyreflies. There aren't any. It's as if they all moved on by themselves, but that can't be right." I replied, unable to hide the surprise in my voice.

"What do you mean? You can't send them?" My love approached, looking into my eyes.

"No," I answered him, tears filling my eyes, "It's as if they've been taken. I think Areth and Shuyin absorbed their pyreflies when they were killed."

"How can that be?" He wondered, walking over to one of the bodies.

"It's one of his abilities as an unsent, isn't it? He has almost total control over pyreflies. He probably killed them and pulled the pyreflies from their bodies to use for himself." I explained, remembering what Fayth had told me.

"So what's our next move?" Paine asked, already looking back at the Fahrenheit.

Putting a finger to my chin, I thought about the remaining strategies we had left. What was Shuyin trying to do by collecting pyreflies from the dead? If it had been only the shadow, he would have gone straight for Vegnagun by now. What was Shuyin up to? However, he and Areth did give us some sort of advice when they left us at Gagazet. Shuyin said it was the end, Vegnagun or not. He said he was leaving us to comprehend how insignificant we were to the "grand design" and Areth mentioned that that was poetic. They were obviously talking about their plans to destroy Spira, but without Vegnagun. Also, it had to be poetic. Both of them were from the Machina War. The ones they killed were from the Youth League, one of the factions that were about to start a war against New Yevon until Lenne's song stopped them. Could they be planning to create a new Machina War? How would they go about it, though? We didn't have nearly the same capacity for mass destruction that they had in the past. Shuyin took their pyreflies; could he be planning to use those pyreflies on a wider spectrum of possession? With all those pyreflies, he could go to the Farplane and take full control, spread through the temples to every corner of Spira. He said we'd be irrelevant. If he was planning to possess everyone on the planet, that would make us an irrelevant piece to his plan.

"You really think he's capable of that?" Paine and my love both enquired.

"It's possible. I'm just guessing the worst for now."

"You know, with Areth's illusions, they don't even have to possess anybody." The blitz ace noted.

I hadn't even considered Areth's part in all of this, but he did have a point. While we fought, Areth had been honing his own skills, trying out his different set of powers. However, something to be said about that was that he also tried to show us Shuyin's darker side. Why would he do that if he was going to side with him? It was entirely possible that he was honestly warning us about him and every time he was nearly caught on it, Shuyin fed us another of his charming regales of suffering horribly in the past that made us feel for him. We all knew Areth was trying to defeat Shuyin back when they were both alive, so it did make sense that he would want to defeat him now, his last thought in life.

By the time I got myself out of my reverie, we had already returned to the Fahrenheit, which had taken off. Paine and Cid were debating whether or not to touch down in Bevelle and demand an audience with Nooj and Baralai. My love was busy looking over the recent tracks for signs of weakness to Shuyin or anything that wasn't going to be another dead end like everything had been lately. Rikku was still not present which meant she hadn't gathered enough strength to face us yet. The ship's crew began receiving several calls from across Spira about abrupt explosions, pyreflies traveling to their epicenters. The waters between Besaid and Kilika were sinking into a whirlpool, pyreflies looming over it. There were tremors along the major routes leading to each of the main cities, and the ruins of Zanarkand were emitting a strange sound. Through all the commotion going on, I felt smothered, clouded by it, and hatred began to well up inside of me. I knew the confusion he caused well now and realized what he had succeeded in doing to us even with just a simple departure. Shuyin manipulated our emotions, forced us to rethink our impressions, then took it all back when we had finally settled on the new ones. These separate and isolated incidents were more of them, to keep Spira's people on edge. Eventually, overcome by the disarray and discord, we would destroy the planet ourselves, the perfect plan, a grand design.

Watching the others bicker over differing strategies and ideas made me sure about my thoughts and I whistled for their attention, "Stop it!"

Once all their eyes were on me, I proceeded, hoping to use a simple statement to extend the actual reality of our situation, "We have two enemies at hand. We know their games, too. We can work with that and we'll beat them."

"Yes Yuna, but what do we do with that information? It's not like we can just guess away their attacks." Paine stated in reply.

"It's not about stopping them anymore if we can't keep ourselves focused on the situation at hand." I told them, "We're being hit by several strikes all across the planet. Two major enemies are on the loose and one faction has already been decimated. All of it is trying to keep us panicking so we rush in and die. Meanwhile, everybody else on Spira goes mad."

"They go to war…" Paine uttered, understanding me.

"And the world ends without them lifting a finger." My love added.

"We'll stop them first." I told them, walking over to the navigations console.

"Where do you think they are?" He asked me.

"It doesn't matter. If they're not there, we'll call them." I answered, setting a course for the Omega Ruins.

"Omega?"

"It's the last place Areth tried to show us Shuyin's true colors and the last place we saw what he was really like." I explained.

**Author's Note:** Yes, end of the world gimmick with a series of uncontrollable catastrophes and missing pyreflies that may or may not be harnessed by the major antagonist in the coming future. No, the Pandorica isn't opening and the TARDIS isn't exploding on us, but several planetary explosions, sinkholes in the water, and odd behaviour by the pyreflies still can't be good.

PS: The Yuna chapter before this opened with a particular question. Think that might influence her hypothesis of the situation's actuality? Until next time! *poof*


	38. United We Fall

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** So Areth, after everything that we went through with Eternal Love just might be the hero this time? Oh dear, 36 chapters in and that's when they figure it out? Well, if it isn't too late, maybe they could free Areth from Shuyin's cold-hearted unsent grasp and allow the enemy of their enemy to become a friend.

Of course, one must then consider the validity of her claims. Some might not be inclined to agree with Yuna's theory, though it does offer its points. Areth had been trying to warn them about Shuyin, to ensure that Tidus would not fall into the same path that led Shuyin to damnation. We've seen Rikku's reaction, Tidus', and Yuna's, but there was another one in there who considered herself a likewise victim to unforeseen elements of fate. What must Paine be thinking about all this?

To haboo, all good questions and I hope you'll wait for the answers as it could be a while. x) Depressing is what Shuyin's all about, especially when I'm trying to make a mess of the situation. x) Anyway, if it's any consolation, you won't have to feel sorry for Rikku for much longer. *readies the murder weapons and torture devices* 3 ... I mean... *readies the "teddy bears"... yea, that's it*

To Jammy, no worries, but I'm happy you've joined now and that you reviewed. I hope you enjoy the rest of this story and let me know what you think in review. =)

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 37: United We Fall**

Paine

_ Shuyin's eyes were cold, lost to the shadow's devices. I tried to help him come to his senses, but there was no way my being there was going to have enough of an effect. With its pyreflies, the shadow lifted me from him and pushed me against the rocky wall behind me. Still, I could feel a cushion of the little creatures at my back even with the force of the other ones plowing me straight into the wall. In my mind, I knew he was fighting it, but it was getting harder with everything that had happened recently easily chipping away at him._

_ "Shuyin, you're better than this. Think about it, Blitz Ace. You're the hope of Zanarkand, aren't you? Areth's still on the loose. Don't you want to stop him?" Yuna's man said._

_ "Zanarkand…" He began saying, "Zanarkand was betrayed."_

_ They began talking about that, the Machina War that made Shuyin so vulnerable to his demons in the first place. I desperately hoped he could win against them and rise above those wretched moments because, deep down, I needed it. I needed to see that someone who was damaged could find her way back from the brink. I remember fooling myself into thinking I could as one of the Gullwings, pushing away those memories so I could live my life anew. That only made me bitter. I couldn't face them and that meant lying to myself about who I truly was, what had actually happened to me. I wanted a way to face them, to remember every painful minute and be fine with it. When Shuyin fought so hard to maintain himself and didn't even let us offer sympathy when the shadow replayed the worst events in his life, I greatly admired him and thought that if he could be that brave in facing his dark past, I should have no excuses._

_ But that all changed when his lips curled into a vile grin at the mention of being under the shadow's thrall, "Do you honestly think I could be so easily controlled?"_

_ "What?" Only Rikku wasn't surprised._

_ It was probably from how long they'd been together. She knew almost as much about his and his limits as the old Kirin did. She could sense it in him, that Shuyin wasn't right this time. Something also told me that he had accounted for it, appointing Rikku as the one to finish him off if he wasn't capable of winning. The look in her eyes when she raised her daggers against him broke my heart. If he had failed, what hope did I have?_

_ "Lenne?" Slight hope returned when he stuttered at her name._

_ Even then, it was short-lived. This Shuyin didn't hold enough of a viable soul to acknowledge her, to understand love. After only a small break in character, he was back to that hideous apparition we faced in the Den of Woe the first time. The one we had come to know and respect was gone, lost in his battle for superiority. As strong as he was inside, the darkness in his heart defeated him. By then, even I could feel it. The pyreflies that still held me against Gagazet overflowed with hatred and rage, the same that filled the entire cavern and the Farplane depths alike when Shuyin's malice possessed them. It wouldn't surprise me if the Den of Woe was kept stable by it, an arrogant testament against the very forces of nature. They wouldn't let the caves fade into history and, likewise, the tortured the Farplane's tranquility, drenching its harmonious will with their malevolent blight._

_ "Hmph, you think she can save you now?" Areth would speak, letting us understand that Shuyin was gone and only the shadow remained._

_ "Did you really think I wanted this Shuyin gone? Silly mortals. He and I are on common ground." He added, revealing his true motives for reminding Shuyin of his crimes._

_ "It's you who antagonize our goals." The shadow told us, clutching my body tightly in its pyreflies._

_ I was thrown into Shuyin's fayth-born dream as he pleaded with his originator, "Shuyin, stop letting the shadow do this to you!"_

_ I knew those words were futile by this point. Rikku made it really obvious. Our mission was a failure. The only thing left to do was fight, but I couldn't bring myself to. I was too shattered and shaken by his loss to his demons. My mind started playing back the moments before the apparition retook him, too. I was the one that took the fight out of him when I stabbed the shadow through and gave the impression that it was beaten. In doing so, Shuyin relaxed himself too soon, probably letting himself feel the pain and sooth his wounded heart, both perfect conditions for the evil presence to seep back in and consume him._

_ "You lot are so easily fooled, it's embarrassing."_

_ "He's not Shuyin." Rikku growled._

_ "Oh, but I assure you he is." Areth stated, but I knew more than the others what he was trying to say._

_ The rest of the conversation meant nothing to me. Those two were planning to end existence again. Regardless of how they intended to do it, I understood what Areth had said to us. It wasn't like before. I was possessed just as Rikku was, even Yuna now, but none of us were left completely blank. We were all there, we watched what was happening to us, and we were simply unable to do anything about it. This time, it was Shuyin being possessed by a part of himself. That wasn't nearly the same. It was what Shuyin had told us even before we got to the Den of Woe: They merged. The dominant will became the only presence to survive that process so, while Shuyin had a physical body left, his mind was nothing more than bitterness and resentment developing to a full capacity. He was dubbed the "shadow" because of being a shadow of his former self. That was why Lenne had any effect on him when we fought him in the Farplane, by reawakening the dormant true essence in him. That essence was now extinguished and the "shadow" was maturing inside of his hollowed out shell of a body. Whatever he needed to be a complete individual was being afforded to him by Shuyin's memories. Since Shuyin himself was a stubborn and strong person, whatever happened in his past made him decidedly good, love being the key. All the same, the hatred of the shadow only turned him into a pure monster, remembering every bit of wrong Shuyin witnessed in life and using that to fuel its evil nature._

By the time they chose to go, I had already come to terms with the fate of warriors like us. If he couldn't battle back his demons in the end, neither could I. Rikku had broken down once they left, the last of her emotional strength used up to make that stand against him. She was still innocent, but she had given much of herself to helping him and, while I thought Shuyin depended on her some to keep him going, Rikku had the same invested in him. We were all caught off-guard thinking about a bright future when there was obviously none to be found so now that that fantasy crumbled into dust, we were unprepared to deal with it.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" I heard Rikku say behind me while I absentmindedly made my way to the bridge.

"We'll send him to the Farplane. When he's there, the nurturing atmosphere should save him eventually." Yuna suggested to her, as if that was going to help.

"It didn't help us last time when he was in there." I told them, making my way back over to them still at the hatch.

"We'll have to defeat him like we did Seymour. Fight him until there's nothing left." The dream of the fayth offered, but he might have just been lashing out.

It wasn't like he was a normal enemy. Who could guarantee that going to the Farplane, even in pieces, wouldn't only spread his pyreflies further and let those tainted emotions blackened Spira's core further? Really, all we could do was keep moving on, fight until our last and see if there was any point to it at the end. Yuna saw that Rikku wasn't handling all this well and took her to her room while the rest of us were left to decide if we were going to lay down and die, talk about how to fight, or scream like I so wanted to. However, I was going to hold it in. Shuyin held it in and failed when the shadow's influence pulled them all back out, but for all intents and purposes, he was at his strongest in fury. Maybe I could do the same, harness my hatred and resentments to push farther, strike harder.

"What in the blue blazes happened down there?" Cid bellowed when we got to the bridge.

"Shuyin's gone. The shadow won after all." I told him calmly beside the fact that I wanted to explode.

"What do you mean 'the shadow won after all'? Won what?"

The dream explained for me, "We thought the other Shuyin, the one we were fighting against possessed our Shuyin so that's why we went to Gagazet because Rikku said he'd be there. He was, but he ended up telling us he wasn't possessed at all. It was just him all along."

"Well, that or the merger he was so worried about went in the shadow's favor after all." I corrected.

"That's great and all, but what does that mean? What are you planning to do now?" Cid asked us.

"What can we do? Beat the bastard to a bloody pulp? Send him? Really, we don't have any idea what would actually work on him." The dream admitted.

"Don't wallow like a bunch of sorry saps, now. Get a plan goin'! That's an order!" Cid grumbled, turning away to boss around some of the Fahrenheit's crew.

Taking a breath, I thought to suggest the only route we might have left, "We should go to Mushroom Rock Road. Maybe Nooj can come up with something."

"Why are we going there?" The guy asked me, making me want to smack him.

Instead, I just took another breath and explained, "Until Nooj sets up permanent headquarters in Bevelle, the Youth League is still at Mushroom Rock Road."

"I mean, do we really need to go to the Youth League?" He replied.

"Right now, they're the only military we have not on duty. We should consult with them and figure out a plan. The crusaders in their ranks might still have some of their old battle machina." I suggested to him, thinking through the scenario.

"Then, we should contact Lucil or Elma first. There's no point in going there on a fool's errand."

At the point, Yuna returned, "If we do that, shouldn't we go to Bevelle? Nooj sent Lucil and Elma to aid Baralai in defending Bevelle's Underground, remember?"

"Bevelle then." I accepted, "We can tell Baralai he was right all along. Should put a smile on his face."

"No, we should hold off then. From what I've been hearing about the guy, he's not going to take it lightly. How much do you wanna bet he'll want to come along with us?"

I had to admit, he had a point. Nooj was possessed for two whole years, but he was hardened and didn't seem too fazed by not having control of his body. Baralai was much more idealistic and sensitive to the wrongs of the world. If we were to tell him he was right and Shuyin was on the loose again, who knows what he might think to do. It was too risky. That's when Yuna came up with the idea of going to the Youth League headquarters without any formal notice. We weren't going in hopes of a miracle solution or anything, but the way we were, we needed some time to recover and think things through to come up with a proper way to deal with the problem.

"Like Yuna said then."

With that in mind, I went to the navigations console and plotted a course to Mushroom Rock Road. Cid joined those two as I left, which gave me time to be alone with my thoughts. After I set the navigations, I stayed at the console, browsing through recent history to look at all of the files that were opened before Shuyin's folly. I found them to be slightly worse than I had wanted. There were files on Vegnagun's specifications and current diagnostics of its systems. He took a lot of time to review the Machine Faction's plans for reconstructing the ancient Machina Cities, specifically power supplies. Also, he had been looking at Bevelle's historical records, citing several visits to past Maesters and regulations made by Yevon. I was afraid he'd be tempted to rethink his plot to destroy Spira with Vegnagun, and maybe he was convincing himself otherwise, but the thought had remained with him and was the obvious choice in weakness when the shadow merged with him. It catered to his doubts about a bettering world in Spira and fed into his fears of a repetition of the Machina War. It didn't take me too long to understand that he still carried those feelings he did when we faced him before. A millennium of holding true to that resolve doesn't just disappear overnight.

I was just about ready to give up, having already accepted the reality of our fate, but then one small link caught my eye. It took me to a file about the Songstress Dressphere and how it came into being. Unlike the other files, Shuyin had had this one placed in temporary memory, which meant it was still being accessed when we arrived at the Den of Woe. What did that me…?

"M'lady Paine," One of the Al Bhed on staff alerted, "Trouble."

"What is it?" I asked him, closing the file and following him.

"Mushroom Rock Road is up ahead." He told me, pointing to an alcove in the distance.

There was heavy smoke coming from it and, when I had them zoom the external comsphere, I distinctly made out broken parts of what had to have been the guard machina at the entrance to the Youth League Headquarters. Quickly, I ran to the communications deck and began casting broadband transmissions. After ten minutes of no response and dead air, and having the airship at landing distance from the alcove, I had no choice but to investigate what I already knew I would find. Gripping the transceiver tight, I slammed it back onto the control panel before making my way back to the others.

"The Youth League's been attacked." I told them, directing their attention to the view-screen.

When we arrived, the entire place looked like a war zone. Whatever remained of the bodies were scattered about, laying open with vacant expressions. Their weapons were in pieces, strewn to the winds. Only one of the Youth League's banners remained identifiable, its surface coated in black ash and torn all over. While Yuna and the others stared in horror, I decided to investigate a little, seeing what was hit hardest. It looked like one abrupt explosion of force that whirlwinded for a while, much like Shuyin's Force Rain, but it just felt different. The energy patterns weren't right. It could have just been wishful thinking, but it almost didn't feel like the unsents did this. However, when Yuna announced to me that her attempt at sending proved useless and that the dead possessed no pyreflies to send, I knew it had to have been Shuyin. Only he had the gravity of sheer will to draw in exhumed pyreflies. He had done so in the Den of Woe and then again in the Farplane with the individual fayth resting there.

"So what's our next move?" I asked, my eyes wandering back to the airship.

Part of me just wanted to take the ship to Bevelle and crash it right into Shuyin the moment he went after Vegnagun. That thought was short-lived once Yuna noted that, "This Shuyin isn't just the shadow. If he was, he would have gone after Vegnagun by now. He must be up to something different this time, but what?"

"Well, it probably has something to do with pyreflies or he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of getting these." The dream said.

"I agree. He could be collecting a large amount of them for possession on a grander scale." Yuna theorized, putting a finger to her chin.

"You think he'll try possessing the fayth again?" I asked.

Yuna shook her head, "No, that already served its purpose, remember? That was more the shadow's plan to draw Shuyin in. He kept using them to say that Shuyin was something it needed."

"Then, he's going for people then." The blitzer clarified.

"Genius deduction, but that doesn't tell us any more about why he would want to. Why won't he just go for Vegnagun?" I asked.

"Vegnagun was defeated, too. He's conscious enough to make a foolproof plan this time. After all, he's partly human."

"If he's thinking like a human, maybe he'll consider the war he lived through." He suggested.

"Maybe. If that's the case, he might be trying to incite the factions to war again, but Lenne already put a stop to their bickering so he'll want to come up with another way to get them fighting." Yuna started to hypothesize.

"He could just possess lots of people and make them hate each other."

While I couldn't even imagine him being that powerful, Yuna began nodding her approval of the theory, telling us then that he could try possessing everyone and forcing them to kill each other. I didn't want to believe it, but it did make sense. If he was capable of it, he could take hold of everyone and use his total control to do what he wanted to Spira without any resistance. He did say that we would be helpless to stop him this time. Like Yuna noted, we would be completely helpless if we were made nothing more than his puppets.

"You know, with Areth's illusions, they don't even have to possess anybody." The dream added.

I hadn't even thought about it until then, but Areth was on his side, "Do you think he could channel Areth's illusions through the pyreflies?"

"It's possible. If he can possess people, he could probably get them to see anything he wanted. If Areth can make us see all those mirages, what if Shuyin could get those mirages to every place on Spira? They wouldn't even need to possess anybody. All they have to do is make them see enemies all around. They'll kill each other out of self-defense."

"But we overcame those illusions in the end, each time." I said.

"Try doing that with Shuyin giving him a boost." He replied, "You don't even know if what you're seeing is a fake or one of them in disguise."

"They'll kill the ones that do see beyond the tricks and let the others slaughter one another."

"Except I don't think Areth is a true player in this." Yuna suddenly inserted.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked her, not really sure where she was going with it.

"Areth was showing us time and time again what kind of person Shuyin really was from his own interactions with him. He showed us that even early on, he was capable of murder; it wasn't something that resulted from his detrimental path in life."

"So what are you saying?"

"I think he was trying to show us what he was really planning and was trying to warn us about it, but couldn't do so directly."

"Why would he do that?" I questioned, curious how Yuna came to that conclusion.

"He hates Shuyin, that much I think is true based on our interactions with him. So, if he hates him so much, how could he side with him?"

The dream chimed in next, adding that, "Yea, I remember when he first showed up. He asked me if I was just as bad as he was. Maybe he was testing us to stop him. When you were possessed by the guy, he kept trying to tell me not to be controlled by my anger at him for kidnapping you. I didn't want to make anything of it, but it almost felt like he was teaching me not to fall into the same traps."

"He told me. When I was under his thrall, he let me see everything until he made me fight you. All the while, he kept asking me if I could trust Shuyin and what truth I would really find in the words of a man who manipulated everything on Spira. I think he was giving us the chance to understand Shuyin's nature so we wouldn't be led astray from what we actually needed."

"Supposing that's true, it still means that Areth's on his side now, out of choice or fear. The plan could still come to pass, which means he's our enemy. What do you suggest?" I noted.

Without a clear answer, we ended up following Cid and boarding. Cid left a few of his men at the ruins of the Youth League to perform search and rescue along with gathering up the dead. When we took off, Yuna was stuck considering what we should do in case Areth was trying to help us and her man was now at the console, but browsing dossiers and character assessment to find some way to exploit a weakness in battle when we took Shuyin on.

Me, on the other hand, "We go to Bevelle, get them so-called leaders to have a little sit down and we get a working strategy going!"

Grunting at Cid's pugnacious attitude, I retorted, "And what do you think they can come up with that we wouldn't have already thought about anyway? All we might end up doing is inciting Baralai to go off on a suicide run."

"Well, you kids ain't come up with nothin' good!"

"It's not that simple. It isn't as if we're dealing with a typical enemy. We can't just kill them unless you want us to be the first possessed and start a rampage while equipped with an armed airship."

"Fine, then my men are going on duty. We ain't part of no league or faction, but we ain't just gonna stand round here yappin' while crazies go on the loose."

"What do you intend to do?"

"Them's my business." He simply replied.

Before I had a chance to sock him in the jaw, a cadet approached us and alerted us to recently received reports. Going to the view screen with Cid, we were fed images and clips of random explosions and destruction across many regions around the world. There were sinkholes in the middle of several bodies of water near the port and beach cities. Even Bikanel was starting to collapse as Gippal sent us a message, having returned to the excavations site with Rin. Seismic activity was anomalous and growing steadily and there was two or three accounts of strange sound coming from the direction of the Zanarkand Ruins.

"Now we got more of a mess to deal with." Cid bellowed.

"I got it." I told him, thinking about what to do, "If we defeat Shuyin and Areth, this all ends. We should make that our priority.

"Sure, you make it your priority, but my ship, my rules." Cid responded, directing his pilot to take us to Luca.

"What are you doing?"

"This war ain't about you bunch mucking about the planet anymore. All this junk needs to be dealt with, too."

"And how were you hoping to handle it?" I asked him, ready to knock him out and assume control of the Fahrenheit myself.

That is, until he said, "Listen, my daughter's been down and out all this time, you kids can't figure out one way or another what you want to do, and we've still got all those people down there ain't got time to wait. My men can help sort them out. While we're getting them there, maybe you can figure something out. Got it?"

Nodding my head and saluting the captain, I went to the navigations and set a proper course to guide the Fahrenheit to all affected areas and set drop points for Cid's Al Bhed. However, the rest of the crew were still busy receiving more reports and the clamor was nearing unbearable levels. Some time in the middle of it all, though, Yuna finally broke her silence and shouted for all of us to stop. Everything that was going on was raising concern and stress in all of us, something Shuyin was very good about advantaging. If they were going to delude everybody into thinking about fighting, having us on edge was the best way to go so we couldn't let him get that out of us. When we all figured that out, Yuna took her own turn at the navigations panel and plot another destination for the Omega Ruins.

For the next few hours, we took off and hit the drop points to release Cid's crew who began coordinated evacuation, rescue, and relief. The lapse in time before we'd make it to the ruins gave me time to think about where we were. Did I believe all of that that Yuna was saying? Areth helping us realize that Shuyin was up to no good? If I wasn't going to believe Shuyin, why would anyone expect to me to believe Areth? Since it was those two, I had further doubts about the validity of their thoughts. Yuna was possessed by the guy. It didn't take much to figure in a guess that maybe Areth left some of his influence in her mind. As for the other guy, really now, how hard was it to convince him of anything? He hadn't even stopped tilting back and forth over whether or not he accepted Shuyin yet when Yuna was captured and he was fed all those scenes of Shuyin being a bad guy. If anything, I was more inclined to believe he was trying to cause us to doubt the one on our side so that he'd feel isolated and the weakened resolve then benefited the shadow when it merged with him.

By the time we finished our support deliveries and were finally on our way to Omega, I had come to the conclusion that I'd let Yuna play out her gambit of proving Areth's cooperation and perhaps forging another alliance with a vigilante. After it failed, which was what I was counting on, then I'd move in to seeing about Shuyin. After everything we had seen, all the theories we'd made, and the files I found Shuyin looking into, I couldn't commit to the idea that he had just been defeated. Even though he wasn't in control, some part of me felt that he let us go at Gagazet to be able to mount a counterattack. He also accounted for how weary we'd be by now and staged scant problems all over the planet. He probably knew they could be taken care of by Cid and his men, which also gave us this time to rest and regroup. If he was so good at manipulating events, it was easy for him to figure out what Cid's reaction would've been. In my opinion, while he hadn't been able to overcome the shadow, he was still in there, still fighting, but using us as a final backup plan in case he couldn't win out in the end.

"Alright, do or die time." The blitzer announced, readying his sword, the Brotherhood, and opening the rear hatch.

"Let's find out if my idea is correct." Yuna said, taking a gulp, "Omega was where we returned other suffering souls to rest. Perhaps history can repeat this time."

Just then, we heard the uneasy footsteps of someone coming toward us and turned to see Rikku, eyes swollen and red from crying, but saying, "I'm ready."

Walking to the girl, I brought her into my embrace and hugged her close. It was probably the first time I honestly felt her sadness and sympathized with her. "Don't worry, I promise you I'll get rid of your nightmare and whatever's left after."

As expected, her eyes only released more tears as she whimpered in my arms. I rocked her gently, cooing to calm her and make her understand that she was safe with us. She had been possessed by Shuyin before and hoped so much that he had come back a better person. Rikku was too innocent to know the parasites poisoning the heart of a reluctant warrior. I'd beat the shadow this time and do better than light could. Holding back only allowed the darkness to spread to other corners until the light faded. It was time to use fire. Fire brings light and stands to beat back the shadows that try to claim it. If Shuyin couldn't be saved, he'd burn, too.

Right as we exited the ship, it was hit by a glancing blast of Force Rain, toppling all of us outside while it was forced to take off. Yuna had wanted us to land on the ruins' surface, which wasn't firm enough for the Fahrenheit, but rather than being able to hover there in wait, it now had to find a safer location to wait as we came face to face with swarms of pyreflies.

"Attention all passengers, you may experience some turbulence in flight." Shuyin declared when he emerged from the curtain of pyreflies.

"We trusted you, you lout!" I screamed at him, getting to my feet and arming myself with my sword.

For the moment, I would adhere to Yuna's theory and that would be a good opening statement if Areth was to be made aware of our idea. Shuyin merely huffed, walking a few steps to the side as Areth formed behind him. He lifted his sword up to his shoulder and gazed at the setting sun in the distance before giving his attention back to us.

"Really? Tough." That was all he replied with.

"So harsh, Shuyin. Didn't realize your coming out party was gonna be so awkward." Areth added, his words making Yuna's claims seemingly possible, though I still didn't want to believe it.

"He killed your brother, but you side with him?" I enquired, hoping to retrieve more clues to his actual allegiance.

He only took a deep breath, closing his eyes as if enjoying the moment before replying with, "Bigger fish, my dear."

"This world is diseased and in need of cleansing. You've already seen it. All of you. There's no going back. Spira must be purged to ensure peace." Shuyin explained, though now it felt more like the shadow of old, something more along the lines of my theory.

"Didn't Lenne already make you see that there's hope left for Spira?" The dream of the fayth asked.

"What is with you people and Lenne?" He said, "I thought you'd know by now she can't save you this time. I'm not going gaga over her anymore."

That sounded a lot like the shadow had something to prove than anything truthful, "Or maybe you're just suppressing it. Why do you think you would? Maybe because you know she would hate you for doing what you intend to do. You're afraid to think about her."

With that, the shadow let loose a howl of ecstasy and mused, "Didn't I tell you there's none of the old Shuyin you knew left? There never was. It was a trick to lure you into my thrall and servitude."

"If that's the case, why do you have to bury your past?" Yuna questioned, helping me with my tactic.

Shaking his head, the shadow simply sent forth a wave of his pyreflies and forced us to the ground, asking us once he did, "How's Rikku by the way? I'd love to catch up."

As his other pyreflies swirled about his body in an accelerated rate, footsteps were heard behind us, telling us that she had still been on the airship. Once she landed she walked out in front of us, her arms spread out as if to shield us.

"Here I am. Come get me…"

**Author's Note:** Right, so rather than believe Yuna about an Areth who wanted what was best for the group, Paine believes Shuyin's earlier words that Areth was only attempting to drive a stake between them and sever their strong bonds. Isolated, Shuyin would have even less of a chance to fight the shadow, which means that the shadow is still on the loose. There is still a Dark Shuyin and he is possessing Shuyin, or is he? Paine also detailed a merger situation whereby the two are currently battling for supremacy underneath the surface, Shuyin being the losing side to Dark Shuyin's malevolence. She also provided good backing to her claims, having researched into all the documents Shuyin was scanning. Is there validity to her theory?

Well, as the lot of you can see, we're about to find out. Next up, time to hear it from the man himself. Shuyin accounts for his choices, the circumstances of his betrayal, and the likely future in the next chapter of Spira: The Eternal Discord! Until then!


	39. Betrayal's Retribution

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Paine's theory, Yuna's theory, and now Rikku takes a stand against the unsent that terrorised FFX-2. Is he a victim? Is he the mastermind? Does he have what it takes to come back? Should he? This following chapter marks the end of this segment of the story. What will be the outcome and how will it affect the conclusion?

Speaking of conclusion, did any of you think that this story would be going on for so many chapters? Well, in all honesty, neither did I. However, when all these ideas and extensions started to present themselves to my muse, I found I couldn't deny them. I had had the Celsius written in as the only airship to be used throughout the story, but that was thrown out the window, wasn't it? More over, Clione'd out the window. *haha haha* Accordingly, this chapter introduces a character I never thought I'd use and even offers that character a speaking role, which I didn't account for, either. As such, the earlier draft I had of it was completely turned around and I giggle at myself for what it was formerly.

Something else of importance to make note of is Wakka and Lulu. Early on in the story, Lulu was attacked and left comatose, the culprit being noted to be Dark Shuyin. They were absent during Dark Shuyin's attack on Besaid, but should've returned to the island by now. It's been quite some time, too.

With that in mind, let's see what Shuyin has in store! =D

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 38: Betrayal's Retribution**

Shuyin

"Here I am. Come get me…" She told me, the look of defiance in her eyes perfect.

Using my pyreflies, I gauged their senses, including that of my partners and noted that they were all waiting for response. It was a daring feat, after all, to be standing before a dangerous adversary. My pyreflies seeped into each of their consciousnesses, perused the varying thoughts and undeniable dread. Curious, it seemed as though Yuna believed Areth was on their side and would backstab me. As if I would let that happen again. Paine had a different take on it, believing that I was only partially the shadow I was and not the Shuyin I am. She believed that the merger between our minds did in fact occur, but I had lost to the shadow and my true nature, that being the kind and jovial Shuyin I presented myself as, was still inching away at the darkness, trying desperately to crawl out from the depths of the subconscious realm.

Rikku was astoundingly calm by all human account, her poise showed great courage and defiance in the face of such peril. However, as I became aware, her mind was frantic beyond words. She wasn't quite sure just what to do next, opting to leave that up to me, though equally, she was anxious and wanted to make a move herself. Feeling the atmosphere and the tension amongst the crowd, I held off any movement for a time, waiting to see how long I could lift their discomfort, as well as, keep Areth on his toes before an eruption occurred. Hatred, panic, and blinding frustration rose heavily in my former comrades, while equally, Areth began wondering about my hesitation.

Turning to the snake, I offered him a demure glance and proceeded to take a deep, relaxing breath of air, stepping back toward Rikku. It was incredible how little Areth actually knew of an unsent's ability. It was true that any typical unsent could only comprehend a certain amount of their own unlimited limits due to mindset and decided necessity once they focused on what they needed to accomplish. It was true that few unsent ever can move beyond themselves and utilize the full range of their power. However, with how well he'd been capable of eluding me in the past, I always supposed him to be creative enough to wield them all. Instead, he had just fallen into a similar category: He was able to produce illusions by scanning one's mind and developing the corresponding scenarios in the pyreflies. I felt I was dealing with just another Seymour, who could only merge himself with various beings or pyreflies to enhance his normal range of abilities in life. What made Areth even more amusing was that he had no idea I was probing his mind with my own pyreflies. There was no reaction or suspicion and I found myself easily perusing all the emotions his pyreflies carried to allow him into being.

An echo from Rikku's body took my eyes back to her and, accordingly, I mentioned that, "I can sense your quickening heartbeats."

Without wasting a breath, she spat back, "So? What about them?"

Curling my lips into a snarling grin, I replied, "… Fear…"

"What's the matter with you? Can't you tell already she's terrified? You don't have to tell her that." Yuna screamed at me, pointing her guns.

Before she even had the chance to think about pulling the trigger, the pyreflies I had circling her locked them along with her hands. The blitzer went to her aid, but I froze him in his step, relieving Areth of the want to do anything. Paine would be next, shifting her garment to the Dark Knight Dressphere. As her form changed, I nodded to Areth who immediately created a false environment before her, one where the rest of them were already dead, a timeframe set forward a few minutes in her relative perspective of the future.

"Areth, what were you trying to prove to me the last time we were here?" The ace of blitz demanded of my partner.

"What makes you think I intended to prove anything to you?" He replied, "In fact, I wasn't trying to prove anything. What I wanted, I got already."

"What? The murderer holding you on a leash?"

Snickering in mild amusement, though I could sense the true blip of worry underneath the surface, he would say in retort, "If anyone's on a leash, boy, it's you!"

That being said, Areth swarmed a horde of pyreflies around him, manufacturing a bizarre old age holding apparatus to bind him with. As he fell, I saw the Brotherhood sliding toward me, stopping just at Rikku's ankle. The girl, all this time, had remained ever vigilant, her arms still held out in wait. A tear welled up in one of her green eyes, overflowing and sliding down her gentle cheek. It was enough to tell me she was at her brink. If I were to push a bit further, it was certain she would collapse, her ploy broken.

"Shuyin!" Yuna cried again, "How could you live with yourself? After he killed your best friend, after what happened to Kirin, how could you!"

Turning my eyes to her, I released the pyreflies holding her arms at bay, using the last of them to disarm her. The "twin bees" as she called them, slid when they hit the ground and crawled their way right next to the Brotherhood, almost a testament to how much fate kept them together. It only made me think of how far I had to travel to recover the Songstress Dressphere of Lenne when I awoke as an unsent. Fate had played a foul game with me, forced me to search tirelessly for my love, when my better was able to return to his Lenne even after fading into nothing.

Taking another breath, I answered Yuna's question, "It's only fair considering how I butchered his friends… Didn't tell you that one, did I?"

She was struck into silence by that, though I was filled with honest abhorrence by her and the others. In their minds, I was no longer to be saved. There was no shadow. There was only Shuyin and I was just as black as any of the things I told them I regretted about my past. However, none of them had ever considered that, while I might have regretted, I still committed those acts. Did it never occur to them that at least some part of me believed my action to have been just? Did they not think about the reality behind their juvenile view of the world? It was enlightening to see that in a day when generations had past in blind faith to a corrupt theocracy, there would still be individuals that could only see good. Why hadn't we been capable of that?

"Shuyin, should we finalize our transactions?" Areth suggested to me, tightening the axles on his device on my better and calling his apparitions of the undead group to assault Paine as she despaired.

"Yes, I think it's about time, but not this way. There's finesse to be had here. Mind your new role, Areth. Being an unsent doesn't grant you the freedom to perform unwitting maneuvers before your enemy. We'll start with the most frightened of the lot. Isn't that right, Rikku?"

Rikku stirred and her step weakened while I approached her. Her arms remained in position, but she began leaning forward, an angry and insubordinate glare fixed upon my visage. Once I reached her, our eyes met and I closed the distance until I could feel her shortening breaths against my skin. Keeping to her gaze, she put her arms down and stood straight.

"Well?"

She hesitated to respond, but after taking a gulp of air and looking over to her cousin and the others, she turned back to me and muttered a single word, "Twilight."

"You sure?"

"Twilight." She repeated, more forcefully this time.

Standing back tall, I looked her deep in her eyes and took a long breath. Taking my eyes first to Paine who was eying me curiously, I smiled and thought about just how looney her life had become by being with us. My better was also staring, though he was more defensive about it than Paine. He had the same look in his eyes I had shown Lenne's enemies, like Trista, emotion I couldn't hide thinking my love was in danger. For a moment, everybody was waiting on a conclusion to what Rikku had started. Areth was comfortable in thinking that "twilight" was the girl's way of saying she wanted an end. In a way, he was right, but that's not exactly the sort of end he was considering. Taking my eyes to the night sky, I allowed my memories to trail to long ago, my pyreflies affecting what my mind saw. As we all stood on the ruins of Omega, the abandoned city came back to life and mended all of its wounds. Areth began taking steps toward me, confused as to what was happening, but he'd have his answer soon.

"Hey, remember why you're so drawn to here?" I told him, allowing my voice to trail.

"What are you doing?"

Unsheathing my sword slowly, I began examining its blade, ignoring Areth's question, "Remember what transpired here?"

"Stop."

"Life answers to no one, does it? How awful."

"Shuyin, stop this."

"What makes you think I could? We're both capable of the same things now. If you can't stop it, there's hardly any chance I'd be able to."

"This is no time for a philosophy lesson!"

"I'd argue the exact opposite." I told him, "You talked about bringing order to the endless chaos, but really now, what order are you to bring?"

"Order comes from an iron fist and unyielding judgement." He replied, his own pyreflies trying to dissipate what mine had built.

"Arrogance can only go so far." I said, reaching out and letting one of his pyreflies slide along the length of my arm.

"Beyond that is obliteration."

"But if you keep destroying what cannot be contained, evolution will be inhibited and other entropic agents have the opportunity to seep in and produce more chaos to fill the void."

"Then, they'll have to be dealt with, as well."

"I fear by then, nothing will have that power."

Areth finally lost his patience, grumbling, "I've had enough of this! We have a job to do so stop daydreaming."

To that, pyreflies pooled ahead of him, collecting themselves in a form most dear. As the former high summoner manifested, I felt Areth's emotions stutter, locking him in a standstill. He marveled at the creature before him, wanting to touch, but knowing she wasn't real. He wanted to disperse the pyreflies that made her, but couldn't bring himself to do it. A thousand years, much like my own, with his great love lost to him. He was caught between the life he used to have and the mission in death he swore to carry out.

"Shuyin, what have you done?"

Casting my eyes down toward his knees, I gave a solemn answer, "I've done nothing. Life yields no favors to any one life. The Farplane exists to send us out only to pull us back in. We live, we die, and with each cycle, it can try to do better. As for us remnants, we're nothing more than glitches, accidents who should've known better than to remain. Staying only causes us more pain. Life doesn't care what fate has dealt us. It only serves itself, to better the planet as a whole."

"Stop this nonsense!" He demanded, one of seldom moments he didn't uphold a suave demeanor.

I didn't respond. I no longer had to. The phantasm of High Summoner Trista spoke in my stead. "Areth, look at what our mistakes have done to us."

"Silence."

"Why do you go on grieving alone?" She told him, trying to put her hand to his cheek.

"You're not real."

"Out of the ashes will arise a new Spira and each time a better one."

"Bevelle burned because of Zanarkand's sin! There can be no better world born out of tainted ash!"

"You're wrong. We were both wrong. When I died, I finally saw light. How horrible it had to be during our time for Spira's future to be great, I saw it and it was wonderful."

"If you are any version of Trista, you could only be the fake." He growled.

Turning to them both, I stated, "A fake, but given life nonetheless. Fate had a destiny waiting for them, too. All of them, just like the ones in Bevelle's grand army."

"Then she's not my Trista."

"No, but your heart didn't know better. Isn't that the point?" I asked.

"She's not real. She may as well be a fantasy like this Omega you've concocted."

"Would you have another opinion had she been the original?" I asked him.

"What is your game, Shuyin? Whose side are you actually on?"

Trista spoke next, "He's on the side he was always on. The side his heart guides him to."

"I've heard enough out of you!" He growled, grabbing the girl by her shoulders.

Just as he did, she screamed and burst into a shower of blood. Areth was taken aback, the crimson liquid drenching him. The Trista whom I had killed so many many years ago had been reflecting on her murder and was given visions of Spira's plight through the centuries just as I had, but whereas I could only grant an audience to the worst this planet had seen, she saw the progress it had made, even with what followed the Machina War. Now, she had one more assignment for me. I took her heart when I killed her as a promise to Kirin. She had lost it for many years, but existing over the following age returned it to her. The real Trista hadn't been so fortunate and neither had her beau. It was now my responsibility to find Areth's heart and save him.

Using my blade while he was still frozen in confusion, I plunged it straight into his chest, "Does this look familiar?"

Areth immediately scattered into pyreflies and resumed his normal appearance a distance away, "Traitor. I should have known."

"No Areth, acknowledging betrayal only comes to those who have accepted a friend with their heart. You couldn't have known my loyalties because you've lost yours."

"There won't be any more lives for you to live!" He roared, beginning Zantetsuken.

Having pyreflies already about him, I merely reformed behind and swung my sword down, scattering him to the wind as he fled to report to his superior. With Areth's influence gone, the apparatus around my better dissipated, as well as, the phantoms haunting Paine. They all arrived before me, enquiring of me what had been presented and what had become of me. 'Why' was a word that started a great many of those sentences.

Taking my eyes to Rikku, I spread my arms just in time to catch her running into my embrace. Hugging me close, she whispered, "I'm glad you're back."

Smiling down at the sweet girl, I took another long breath and looked at each of them with weary eyes. Unknown to them, our battles had only just begun. We had been so careless and naïve. Looking back down at Rikku, I pressed her head close to my chest before moving on back to the Fahrenheit.

"Not done yet… And we'll need to prepare…" I muttered with my back to them.

**Author's Note:** For all those who believed Yuna, I laugh at you. Areth was never meant to be a protagonist and he never will. It's sort of like ShinRa. Even when Rufus admitted that ShinRa's activities were wrong and he seeks to right the travesties committed, he still sounds like a conniving weasel. However, I had played with the idea of an Eternal Love spin-off in Areth's words, like an Eternal Love: Areth's Story, where I'd have the chance to better define how he was led to become Shuyin's nemesis. In the end, I felt it was best to present it otherwise as that should be sufficient enough. That is why I changed copy Trista's role from being just an illusion of pyreflies made by Shuyin of the real Trista to being the copy, to then being the conscious and unsent copy who was awakened by Areth's pyreflies. Also, earlier in my drafts, I had wanted to create a scene where Trista could redeem herself, but then decided against it to keep Trista's character a proper foil to Lenne.

A note on that: Areth's "heart" that they both spoke about is not to be related to Kingdom Hearts' concept of the "heart". It is just to say Areth lost his compassion and ability to forgive and it forbids him to free himself from the past. This was true of Shuyin when he was trapped in the Den of Woe as I mentioned in the earlier fanfic. I don't think I need to explain at what point in time he lost it, but regaining it will play a role in future chapters.

For all those who believed Paine and thought Shuyin was being possessed by the shadow and couldn't break free, I also laugh at you. Don't you think twenty or so chapters of Shuyin fighting against an evil version of himself is enough? =p Besides, Shuyin's no Zero. *Megaman X reference* There's no viral entity in his mind telling him to destroy or be a God of Destruction. I'll save those chapters for the Crimson Hunter.

For the rest who came up with their own theories, I salute you. And for those who did and guessed right that Shuyin was mucking about with Areth's head this time, I give you a cookie! There were several hints to it, that being all the times Shuyin was ready for their tricks and stunts, his unusual actions as of late, and how much **unwritten** time he was spending with Rikku. Why do you think I hadn't made a Rikku chapter since Kilika? Why do you think I didn't have Shuyin voice the "Requiem to Shadow" chapter when he'd probably have the most to say? Oh, I didn't say it was a plan all along yet, did I? =o Well, it is! =D

Next chapter, we'll see just what that plan entailed and if it was successful. With the many hours that passed, hopefully Shuyin got something, but as seen at the end of this chapter, he obviously did find something out, at least, and seemed troubled by it. Next chapter will reveal just why he was upset and if you'll be upset by it, too. =o Hopefully, you'll think it was a good decision on my part to take the story in that direction. ^_^;;;

Keep mindful of your surroundings, my readers. Everything in the fanfiction up until now points to something in the next segment and anything said in theory might just be proved false as you've already seen. Let's see if you'll figure out the coming events.

… Now that they're gone, wonder what sort of bs I can come up with next. Hmm, perhaps I could just throw in a Gundam or something… Oh my, you're still here! *poof gone*


	40. Trump Card

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** To haboo, thanks for reviewing. Nagging works! x) To your first comment, I feel with Paine chapters, it's more about making the connection between the Paine at the end of X-2 and the one introduced in Last Mission since she seems significantly different. =p This one was to make note of her fear of never rising out of her grief what with Shuyin "failing" to do the same. Chapters like this one will show her reaction from that to what transpired last chapter. On Shuyin, yes, he actually merged with the shadow. Shuyin, having moved on from his self-loathing was stronger than the shadow and so Shuyin absorbed that part back into himself, which meant the pyreflies listen to him again, not his embittered heart which is what the shadow was. Basically, what the shadow needed was a physical body, which is what it should have gained in the merger. However, since Shuyin was stronger, the shadow's presence was absorbed back into Shuyin and Shuyin gained the unsent powers in his physical body. As for Lenne... well, you'll just have to keep reading. ;)

As I said in the last chapter, this chapter now starts a new segment to the story. Now that Shuyin's been revealed not to be an enemy to Yuna's group, it should be obvious Areth will report it. His cover is gone and pulling that stunt will most assuredly mark him as the primary target.

However, for the moment, he's safe back with the rest of the team. Will they be able to stop what's coming? Where did Shuyin go? In this chapter, a few things will be revealed and reflected. Like most of the other chapters like this one, it offers a break from the action to catch everyone up with more details and closing remarks for the previous segment.

As I said last time, Shuyin and Rikku were the co-conspirators in this plot so now we take a look at what she's been thinking about and how well their plans resulted. Did Shuyin find out everything he needed? How did they arrive at it anyway? More importantly, that plan kept the rest of the group out of the loop. *see what I did there? =D* Just how well are they going to respond to that? Let's find out!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 39: Trump Card**

Rikku

Right when Areth poofed away, I ran to Shuyin and gave him the biggest hug I had in me, telling him that, "I'm glad you're back."

Shuyin held me close and rubbed my back to show me that the worst was over. I didn't have to pretend anymore and I didn't need to worry about his safety. We had thought of a plan together in the Omega Ruins the last time we were here. I thought about how we could turn the tables on them so they'd be the ones on edge instead of us. Areth had gone to so much trouble to make us point fingers and fight each other. The shadow was always trying to get Shuyin to leave us and come back to it, completing itself so it could have the advantages of both a living body and an unsent's manipulation of the pyreflies. Shuyin told me that it wasn't going to be as simple as that. We kept thinking he was only back because of the unsents and it was the shadow's doing, but that was impossible. Even at his best, an unsent doesn't have the power to bring back the dead. The only thing that seemed capable of it was a fayth, or rather, lots of fayth. We saw it with the dream that was molded in his likeness, a fully alive growing and aging person complete with his own memories and personality. Shuyin guessed that it was a fayth that brought him back, but couldn't figure out how they could, being in the Farplane. We took a shot and said it was probably an oversight when they brought Yunie's guy back. Then, the shadow and Areth could have been awakened by a living, breathing Shuyin walking the surface of Spira again. That didn't explain Seymour, though. It was because of all those unknowns that I decided we needed to interrogate one of them, Areth or the shadow, but Shuyin said that was too dangerous.

_"I'm not going to risk another of you being possessed and used as a shield. We were lucky he didn't use Yuna that way. He wasn't strong enough to maintain his hold over her and he was thinking short-term anyway." He had told me after we rescued her._

_"We don't have another option, though, do we? If we want to get to the bottom of this, they obviously know more than we do about it. Somehow, we have to find a way to capture an unsent." I replied._

_"The only way I've known to stay one of them is to defeat it in battle, but that only lasts for about as long as it takes the Sending to come into effect. It's not long enough for question and answer sessions."_

_"Maybe the Farplane Energy mining that Shinra was talking about could work. If we can find the mechanism that draws the energy out of the Farplane like they had in the Machina Cities, we could drain the unsent of its energy long enough to capture it."_

_"That's supposing Shinra's research kicks in right now, which I'm not holding my breath for." He retorted._

_"Fine, but I'm not listening to your plan!" I told him, already knowing what he was going to say._

_"There's nothing else left." He tried to reason._

_"It's too dangerous and I don't want to lose you."_

_"You won't. I'm never going to let the shadow overcome me again. You and Yuna saved me from that once already and I have yet to return that debt. Believe me now, Rikku, I'll find out what's really been going on and then we'll end it once and for all."_

_"How can you be so sure the shadow's plans to merge with you is going to fail? You already said its been leading us to that conclusion anyway. It could be just what it wants you to do." I shouted, pounding my fists into his chest._

_"Yes, I know, but remember this: It needs me to do this. I don't need it. That alone gives me the advantage. It can't be whole without me as its host because my core consciousness is with me. The shadow is only the fragmented anger I felt when I died. Even if it is a part of me, it isn't what's important, which is why the shadow lacks the abilities I've been capable of as an unsent. Trust me, Rikku, I can win against it."_

_"And if you don't?"_

_"If I don't, it's all up to you. I have faith that you'll make the right calls."_

After that, we fought the shadow in Kilika and I could see that Shuyin was the stronger one. At first, I knew he was apprehensive about using the Bererker Dressphere because of what happened the first time he tried to use it. Even so, it was how the shadow was fighting us that made me realize just how much it did need Shuyin. It tricked us by creating a fake situation at the temple and surrounded itself with the dense jungle when it attacked. It hardly paid any attention to the others during the fight, but before it went after Shuyin, it came for me. The last time it was just me and Shuyin, I was able to use Kirin to distract the shadow. I knew it was scared that I might jeopardize what it was trying to do, but even then, Shuyin overcame his fear of the dressphere and fended the ghost off. When we were on the airship and Shuyin began telling the others to stay focused and keep up their fighting spirit, I knew it was to draw out the baddies when he turned, thinking that none of them would trust him again. I was glad he told them everything else, though, even if they weren't in total agreement. By the time we'd beaten the Bahamut mix that the shadow came up with, I knew Shuyin was ready and had no choice but to accept his plans.

_At the last minute, before we entered the Den of Woe, he reminded me that, "Once this is done, you can rendezvous back with me at Mount Gagazet. You know where. If I haven't collected enough intel yet, I'll give you enough of a reason not to blow my cover."_

_"What if you're not strong enough?" I asked him, hoping he'd change his mind even though I knew he wouldn't._

_"You'll know what to do then, too." I didn't know what else to say, but I didn't want to risk losing him like this. He did, though, "Now you'll have to be brave. Remember to lead the others astray. I need Areth and whoever he's subordinate to to believe I'm back to my old ways."_

_Hesitating for a little bit, I looked down only to have Shuyin pick my chin up and have me look him in the eye and say, "Roger. Understood."_

Everything in the Den of Woe was just like he said it would be, hard and cruel to watch, but we had to keep going. He told me about all of it, but seeing it with my own eyes hurt so much. Worse yet was that he told me more that we didn't get to see. The shadow only wanted Shuyin to remember the most painful of them because otherwise, he might set his mind on the good intentions he had when he was unsent. Shuyin moved on, honestly he did, from what happened in his past. It was why he didn't seem bothered anymore even when the rest of us couldn't stand all the terrible events replaying in front of our eyes.

The moment Paine destroyed the remnants of the shadow and Shuyin absorbed those pyreflies back into himself, it looked to everyone else like he was being possessed, but while his hand caught them and redirected them to clear our way out of the collapsing Den of Woe, none of them noticed him wink at me. It was such a faint gesture that I almost missed it, but since he needed me for his plan to work, I was concentrating very hard. By the time we were outside and the whole cave sank down into a chasm, I knew there wasn't a single pyrefly left in it. I didn't know how well he'd take it, having loose pyreflies floating around inside of him that only contained hate and regret, but he was dealing with it mostly well. Still, there were twitches that I didn't want the others to see, especially after he said that very _Dark Shuyin_ line of his, so I acted out being scared and "stabbed" him, pushing him down off the edge.

"Not done yet… And we'll need to prepare…" He said, pulling me away and heading for the Fahrenheit.

He'd found something and it wasn't good. If stopping Areth just now wasn't cheering him up, whoever was behind bringing them back must have been devastating. He had said only a fayth had the power to resurrect the dead, but I wondered what fayth would do such a thing. I didn't want to believe any of the fayth we had met were behind it, and they were targeted by the shadow anyway, so it only made sense to me that it was the shadow's doing if it had been those fayth. The problem with that theory was that the shadow could have wanted to be whole again and so, forced the fayth to return Shuyin's physical body to it. That didn't seem likely because of how Shuyin was acting now that the shadow had been defeated.

"I'm quite confused at all this. What just happened?" Yunie asked me, tugging at my arm before I could go and follow him back onto the airship.

"I'm sorry, Yunie. It was a plan we made up to find out just what was going on." I explained.

"Why?"

"The ideas we came up with up until now were all flawed in some way. It just didn't make enough sense. Shuyin decided the best way to find the truth was to let them get what they wanted first."

"Then, Shuyin would work his way on the inside and see just what was going on."

"Right! But I don't know what he found that's got him like this."

"It's got to be something big to get him unnerved." Paine added, coming to us.

"There's nothing they can throw at us that we can't handle!" Dream boy boasted, patting himself on the chest.

"Does that mean Areth was never trying to help us?" Yunie asked.

"No, he was just taking his revenge on Shuyin by making him lose the only friends he had made after so long stuck in that cave. He doesn't want to kill a complete Shuyin, either. Something changed in him when he became an unsent. Whatever he wants, maybe our plan helped us find that out, too." I explained.

"And he was never possessed at all, was he? The entire time, he was playing his role as the shadow to deceive Areth and whoever else." Paine enquired.

"Yup, I wouldn't have believed it either, but he winked at me when he got 'possessed' so I knew it was him."

"You two have been sneaky as of late. Now we know why." She said in a dangerously low tone.

"Uh, it was the only way to make it believable! Honest!" I yelped, hiding behind Yunie.

"Huh, really. Rikku?"

"Yea?"

"A hundred."

"Respect points?"

"Yea, you just got them." She said with a smile.

Jumping for joy, I rushed over and gave her a hug, squeezing her tight and nuzzling her arm, "Oh, thankies Dr. P!"

"Minus fifty."

"Oh…" I whined, letting her go.

"Maybe forty, but don't push your luck."

Once we made it to the bridge, we found Shuyin back on the main console, looking through files again. This time, he was taking a look at the recent reports of Vydran's guys on all the explosions that had happened all over the place. From those reports, he scanned some of the keywords and opened up different data files from weather conditions to soil content.

"What are you doing?" I finally asked him, "Did you find anything on the explosions?"

"Major factor to what's been going on, I'm afraid. I'm seeing just how unstable it's gotten, but for now, it doesn't seem that bad. Maybe that's how it was meant to be." He told me, his attention never leaving the view screen.

"So you two were collecting the pyreflies to use on a global level." Yunie asked, walking over.

"What?" That got his attention.

"We went to Mushroom Rock Road and saw the devastation of the Youth League. I tried to send them, but there were no pyreflies left in their bodies. I assumed you or Areth were taking them to go on a large scale possession or illusion ploy." She explained.

For a while, Shuyin was dumbfounded, blinking a few times at my cousin, then looking at me, then back at her, "You've read too many fantasies."

"You're saying that's not possible?"

"No, I'm saying that's too dramatic for reality. Besides, if I was after a greater expansion of pyreflies, I'd go straight for the Farplane. You saw how it was last time."

"Then, why are those people losing their pyreflies?"

Shuyin fell silent and returned to the screen. Yunie decided not to push the topic any further, but I stayed with him. He activated the navigations map grid at some point and set a destination for Besaid. When he noticed that I was looking, he said that we needed rest. If we were going to face the oncoming storm with any success, he told me that we needed time.

"Also, Areth needs to taken care of first. There can't be any distractions when the time comes because there're already going to be too many."

While the Fahrenheit made the long trip all the way back to Besaid Island, I checked up on Vydran to see if his heart was going okay with everything that happened. I knew he liked to put up a tough guy exterior being the leader of the Al Bhed and all, but he was getting too old for it and needed to let the Machine Faction take over full-time. Two year ago, he tried to be stern when we were all figuring out how to save Yuna from her Pilgrimage. I knew better than anyone that he had been very worried for our safety and the knowledge that our chances for succeeding against years of failing tradition were next to nothing. Afterwards, even though he was happy that none of us were killed, I remembered seeing him on a few nights praying that the Eternal Calm was for real. Of course, just a while ago, that's when Shuyin attacked Spira and defeated those hopeful thoughts. He tried to bury his true feelings in renovating the Zanarkand Ruins, but I saw right through him. Now, only a short time after all of that, here we were again, dealing with this mess.

"Vydran?" I said, quietly walking up to him.

With his back to me, he grunted, "So you two were playing possum with us, eh?"

"Not so much possum as covert agent." I replied, grabbing his arm, "Are you okay?"

"Sure, I'm okay! Any good soldier knows you don't win no wars playin' it honest. When they got their chips down, you swipe 'em." He told me, grabbing at air with his other fist.

"Uh yea, but what's with the misty eyes?" I said, wiping away the moisture I found on his cheek.

"Allergies! No dang engineer's been through these vents in two years. The dern thing's probably got some kind of…"

"Vydran…"

"You okay? I know when that Shuyin kid took off, you were lookin' right upset." He asked, looking over at me, "I couldn't tell one way or another if that was just part of the act."

"No, I was trying to act, but I was still upset. I was scared for him, you know? Nobody ever said being a spy was fun and simple."

"You had my ol' heart in knots."

"Sorry, but he's back now, safe and sound. We'll fight to the end and get to that _dern_ Eternal Calm one way or another." I mused, taking his words for a spin.

"Hope so. Ain't so sure that's possible no more."

"Aw pops, we'll make it there. I promise. Then, you won't have any more to worry about." I stated with a smile.

The rest of the way to Besaid was more talkative than it had been on the airship in some time. Tensions were calming with our plan no longer in effect. There were no more theories and no more planning in the event of those theories. Instead, we had some idle chatter, some of the talks about what we could do after this was all over and done with, and most of what we used to do during Yuna's Pilgrimage, though I was kinda hoping it was for real this time. Without Shuyin telling us just what exactly he found, we were left in the dark, but that meant all we could think about was Areth, which wasn't too much of an issue now that the shadow was defeated. I think everybody started counting down the hours until we could rest and relax again.

"I can't wait to blitz again." The dream of the fayth said with a yawn.

"I can't wait for when that becomes the most intense part of my day." Yunie added.

"I think I could just go for a drink. You in Rikku?" Paine asked.

"And what pray tell does Dr. P. drink?" I mused, inching real close.

"The blood of bratty blondes who don't know they have it coming." She grunted back, narrowing her eyes at me.

With a mock shiver, I ran for cover behind my cousin, "Yunie, she's going to suck my blood!"

"Well, it might taste sweet." My cousin suggested.

"Yunie!" I whined, running over to Shuyin.

Shuyin looked up for only a few seconds before going back to the console, saying, "I'm afraid I can't save you this time."

That being said, I pretended to be struck hard in the chest and fainted backward onto the ground, my eye peeking just a crack to see the reaction. Paine stalked over to me and squatted on my stomach while Yunie went to talk to her man. Shuyin took the moment to sit back in his chair and what the two of us, going over and whispering something in Paine's ear. The next thing I knew, I felt fingers tickling my sides and had to get out of there. Unfortunately, the girl was sitting on me, leaving me no way to get any distance from her. I eventually managed to turn onto my stomach and start crawling, but that when I realized my back was even more ticklish than my front.

"No no! Stop it! Mercy!" I cried, laughing so hard I thought I was going to faint for real.

"Mercy? What's that?" She asked me coyly.

"Shuyin! Save me!" I screamed, clawing at anything I could find.

"Have no fear, Shuyin's…" He started, but upon seeing Paine's scowl, "On second thought…"

AND HE WENT BACK TO HIS SEAT! "Shuyin!"

"We're here! Less you wanna keep doin' what you're doin'." Pops grumbled, the Fahrenheit hitting Besaid's sands with a thud.

"Okay… We're… here… Am I… saved… yet?" I muttered between breaths of air since Paine stopped.

Putting a hand to her chin, she thought for a moment before saying, "Uh… sure" with a pat to the back of my head and getting off of me.

As everybody left the bridge, I stayed a little while longer to catch my breath, my only company in Shuyin who was still looking over the files. I complained about his brand of help, but he thought it was fun and it reminded him of a time when he was in Besaid with his friends. Apparently, Paine was playing his role back there.

By the time we got to the village, though, all the joking was set aside. We entered Wakka's hut quietly and told him what the present situation was and everything that led to this point. Wakka told us that he'd been keeping up with things as best he could, and that the doctor in Kilika had helped Lulu a lot.

"She's doing fine now, ya. The old guy over in Kilika, he's got some goods. She still hasn't come out of her coma, though, but she will. Lu's a fighter, ya. Don't worry." He reassured us, adding that, "Since we been on the shelf, looks like you got a lot more work to do, ya?"

"Yea, who knew that after we took down Seymour, Areth would show up." I told him.

"It was too difficult to predict, but we can hope that at the end of this calamity, the Eternal Calm will actually take place." Yunie added.

"It never should've been postponed." Shuyin argued, walking to the door and looking outside, "All of this, all of this should've become a peaceful lifestyle over a thousand years ago. It could've been that way two years ago, too."

"Never mind about that. Shuyin, tell us what you've found." Paine said, walking up to him and pulling at his shoulder.

"Yes, tell us so we can put an end to this." Yunie agreed, standing up.

"… I don't know how you're all gonna respond, but…"

I decided to step in, "Just say it. We're ready for anything."

"Shuyin, what's wrong." Yunie asked him, looking him in the eye."

Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes to find the words, he looked right at her and said in almost a whisper, "He's back… and he brought it back, too…"

"Brought what?" Dream boy asked.

At first, he only took his eyes to Paine, then back to Yunie, closing them to take another breath before looking behind all of us with a slight frown. None us knew what was going on and Yunie's guy even asked the question we all had on our minds again. All the while, Shuyin just looked behind us. His stare didn't move for a while and, one by one, we realized to turn out attention to what he was looking at. Behind Wakka, struggling to stay on her feet and stumbling towards us, Lulu came, her eyes on Shuyin just as his were on hers.

"Lulu!" All of us gasped, Wakka going to her side.

"You saw, didn't you?" Shuyin finally said.

"Yes." Was all Lulu answered with.

"Saw what?" The Blitz Ace asked one more time.

"The Age of Sin…" She replied.

**Author's Note:** … =)

That's right. All this was made possible by none other than the famed Yu Yevon from FFX who was painstakingly fought and painstakingly defeated and painstakingly sent popping off to the Farplane. He's back. Again.

I had been reading topics over several areas online that asked the question: Was Yu Yevon sent? Some pointed at the lone pyrefly that flew off when the Yu Yevon parasite was defeated. Many wondered if that pyrefly was all that remained of him, the representation of his soul being freed, or if he had escaped being sent all together, hence the pyrefly flying off while the rest of his body disintegrated. In Eternal Love, since I wanted to keep the original Journey's Start sphere in my story rather than the updated one in FFX-2, the text made it seem as if he was speaking to his own people. (Who cares if I steal the enemy's weapon; it's the only way to save the summoner!) Why would he tell Bevelle he was stealing "the enemy's" weapon? This was edited to "your weapon" in FFX-2, but I don't like plotholes and the original was more interesting to think about. ^_^;; So, seeing how several antagonists from that story were never punished: Haru, Gras, Mikala, Bevelle, Yu Yevon, I thought about a way to give Shuyin the opportunity and it seemed he was robbed of his chance at Yu Yevon with the time difference of FFX and X-2. As such, I decided to give him another one and began writing Spira: The Eternal Discord. You guessed it; I had every intention since the Prologue of making Yu Yevon the final boss. Likewise, "he brought it back", he's concocted another Sin. However, having a repeat of FFX with a few new characters would be pointlessly dull. How about the fact that there are no more Aeons to sacrifice? There's no more parasite to pummel. Yu Yevon was known as the most powerful summoner in all of Zanarkand, a city priding itself on its summoners. Speaking of which, those gravity spells that pulled Sin's pyreflies together? Guess what those explosions really were? =p

Yes, that is a Graviton spell. Yes, it's a rather powerful Graviton spell. Yes, Sin still needs a Final Aeon. You might wonder just how we're to get a Final Aeon when there aren't even any summoners about anymore. Leave me to that. And yes, he's the reason Shuyin's back. Yes, he brought back Seymour and Areth, too. Well, Areth was a restless unsent, but it was he who gave Areth a direction to fulfill his Focus. *whoops, wrong game* Oh, and yes, he's what actually woke the pyreflies in the Den of Woe and alerted them to Shuyin being alive again. Yes, that's why Seymour, Areth, and Dark Shuyin were together in this. Oh right, if you were thinking those fayth are behind it somehow and they could be the Final Aeon/a sacrificed Aeon/something else along those lines, you're wrong. =) I have other plans for them, which I already wrote once. Larea's not the only able-… can't say bodied, can I… fayth floating about. Now, as for how any of this is to make sense without collapsing into a plot-blackhole and pulling all this farce in, that's for next time!

…

…

…

Yeah… =p


	41. Forever Fooled

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** So, as I said previously, this is going to be the final enemy and this segment most likely becomes the last one, too. Before we can finish it, though, just having Rikku explain some of what Shuyin discovered wouldn't be enough. Why not take a step back and see what really happened to Shuyin after Rikku pushed him into the chasm. In this chapter, you'll get to see when Shuyin decided he needed to show Areth his heart and what else occurred that they will now have to handle.

Before we get to that, though, for all my readers thinking to themselves that this has turned into another "Sin returns" fiction, I hope there'll still be more surprising twists in store for you. To haboo, if you thought Sin X was worthy enough, just wait for this story's Sin to have a go.

Now, without further ado, I present the fortieth chapter and the start of a new segment of -

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 40: Forever Fooled**

Shuyin

"_Be careful alright?"_

"_Ha, you have to wake up pretty early to get at me."_

"_Yea, nothin' like a good victory in waiting to get the blood pumpin', am I right?"_

"_You gonna be in the startin' line-up wit us or are you gonna let me get all the glory to myself?"_

The pyreflies began circling closer now, my senses clearing as more of my body began to reform. After the Den of Woe collapsed, it created this canyon that stretched a great distance underground. I fell all the way down, smashing into the jagged rocks below. I should've been shattered, long since dead, but I had these tiny creatures saving me. My physical body was shielded by them, any impact absorbed and redistributed. What should have killed me only sapped my strength and stamina, but those were both recoverable. As the pyreflies finished their job, I shook myself awake and found I was staring up at the sky.

Sitting up, I patted my head and made a grunt, whispering to myself, "Rikku did good."

When I gathered enough consciousness, I began surveying the new area, testing my body to determine its present condition. Seeing no permanent damage, I moved on, unsheathing my sword to test my coordination. As I had fallen quite a long way, my swordplay suffered some, but it would regain itself with time and rest. Lastly, I called forth the shadow's pyreflies and went about manipulating them as I had done during my tenure as an unsent. At first, it felt like the beginning all over again, my capabilities with them infinitesimal compared to how I used to be with them. However, where it took me months to figure out everything I was capable of then, I needed only several minutes to reclaim the base levels of my abilities. Once I felt confident enough in the stability of my new existence, I concentrated the pyreflies, turning them into a large pike and having them drill into the rocks below. After only a few moments, they had breached the surface of the Farplane's outermost shell, allowing me access. Separating my form into pyreflies, I streamed into it, moving alongside their pure counterparts in the planet's core and arriving at the Farplane's Glen.

Once I reformed, I noticed that much of the area had deteriorated since I was there last. The purple flowers from my past were gone. The autumn growth of Yuna's present were missing, as well. In fact, even the pyreflies that should've swarmed the area seemed scant. Using my pyreflies to influence them, I brought back some of the beauty of the Farplane that it should've possessed, localizing the greatest amount of change on the platform I currently stood.

"Now what?" I called out into the darkness, "Rikku told me about you. You might as well come out. I'm not going anywhere."

For the next few minutes, I sent some of my pyreflies through the viewable Farplane and analyzed it, discovering that a great deal of it was missing. I contemplated Areth having been the culprit, but thought against it considering our interactions previously telling me he wasn't capable of something like this. Even with a millennium behind him and intense hatred for me, he didn't have reason enough to let him take hold of all the pyreflies no longer present. There was more to the situation that had presented itself thus far and only one person would know now.

As I turned back towards the center of the platform, I saw her, standing amidst the flowers with the dress I had buried her in. She had an ethereal glow, the mark of the dead, but the light exuding from her didn't feel like an unsent's force of will. Standing there, she only looked at me, an unusually stern expression on her countenance.

"Kirin…" My mouth uttered as I moved over to hug her in my arms.

Before I could, she lifted a hand to me, holding me back, "Sorry… You still have work to do."

Nodding, I asked, "What kind of work? Areth isn't the one behind any of this, that much I know."

"Yes… We are… I'm so sorry. I didn't think…"

"What do you mean?" I enquired of her, "We? Who else is there?"

From the ether, figures appeared, their faint forms solidifying and revealing their identities to me. Coming to stand beside Kirin were Jurama and my best friend, Rothel. Next to him, our other lost teammates, Vena and Kion arrived and from behind Jurama came Damusa. As I released a shocked and unbelievably overjoyed gasp, they neared, Rothel patting me on the shoulder just like old times. Moving to Vena and Kion, I took them each by the hand and gripped them tight, happy to see them again after all this time apart.

"Guys…" I uttered, looking at them all, one by one.

"Heya T." Rothel was the first to speak, "Ever think we'd be here right now?"

"Seems like someone's convoluted plot to a fantasy, doesn't it?" I replied.

"Tell me about it. I've been stoned before, man, but ouch." Kion gestured, allowing all of us a laugh.

"And I thought my ring had a big rock." Vena added in.

"But it did have a big rock." Kirin suggested, causing us all to let out another laugh.

"You seen Larea around recently, eh? She fused with her Aeon's fayth, ya know? Said she'd be the third of them to join the Magus Sisters." Rothel added, explaining to me just how her special became her.

"The trinity, huh? Reminds me of all those passing girl bands back in the day." I said, snickering a little.

"Different trinity, ya know?" He replied, making note of our old myths.

"Who can keep track?" Ju interjected, "Might as well be a girl band."

"At least we'd get a better view, yea?" Kion jested.

"About what's happened…" Vena interrupted, bringing us back on topic.

"I'm sorry, guys. I tried my best, but I was so stupid and stubborn back then. In the end, I couldn't save anyone and almost tore this world apart in my bitterness." I solemnly stated.

"Wasn't like it was your fault, Shuyin." Kirin came over, putting her gentle hand on my cheek.

"No, I'm not going to head back in that direction anymore. Whether or not the blame falls on me is immaterial; what matters now is fixing this mess."

Rothel smashed his fist into his other hand, "Time for a good ol' blitz, ya know?"

"What did you have in mind?" I asked.

"My buddy could use a friend now, for sure." Another voice emerged, his hand placing itself on my shoulder from behind me.

"Kai." My mouth voiced as I turned to greet him, "It's been a while."

"Sure has. For Areth, too."

"That guy needs to relax, take a breather." Damu added, popping his head in between us.

"Help me set him straight, Shuyin." Kai requested of me.

"Don't worry. I think I can chance a guess at what he's after now. This world's been so unfair, hasn't it? At first, all he cared about was getting revenge on me for his brother. He couldn't and died a villain for all his efforts. It must have been hard." I said.

Kai nodded, "The guy had all the right intentions. He wanted justice. The only problem was that he was willing to go too far to get it. Even now, he doesn't get it. He threw away his heart when his mission needed it most of all."

"I'll save him, Kai. You have my word."

"That's not all." Kirin interjected, the light pouring from her body growing brighter.

"Who ever would have guessed the old coot had it in him." Ju added.

"You'd think he was just a figment of your imagination like those rainbow-coloured shoopuffs." Kion said, using his hands as if comparing the two.

"Kion, lay off the happy weeds." I told him with a smile.

"This really isn't the time to be joking." Larea's voice echoed, her form taking shape beside me.

"Sorry." I replied, taking a breath to get back to the situation at hand, "So, what's with the unsent collection?"

"We're… not unsent." Kirin told me, lowering her head.

"What?"

"They're new fayth." Larea answered, walking to Rothel, "Reborn recently."

"Never thought, eh?" He said to her.

"We were created to be the fayth that would bring about the second Age of Sin." Kirin told me.

"Why would you agree to that?" I asked her, my eyes growing wide.

"He told us we could save you then. If we allowed ourselves to be converted into fayth, we would have the power to revive you and give you a second chance." She said.

"In return, you'd use your control over the pyreflies to collect him enough of them to rebuild Sin." She nodded.

"The old coot's got one better this time. As an unsent, he doesn't need to morph into a parasite mind to keep his hold over the pyreflies. He learned that one from you when you altered the Farplane to your liking. You could say, that's when we all reawoke in here." Ju explained in further detail.

"Yu Yevon turned them from scattered pyreflies waiting to be reborn into his new fayth and, while they were gathering in the pyreflies, he pulled some from the ether in the form of the fallen Maester Seymour Guado. He and you are the same." Larea said, making additional elaborations.

"We're dreams of the fayth, aren't we? Before you could make me, he made you revive Seymour as a test. Eventually, you revived me in hopes I could stop everything else he was doing." I concluded.

"Yea, his plans started to sound more and more deranged and, after we saw what Seymour had done, we knew Spira needed a hero. I thought you were the best bet. We were all close to you. We could make a real you, not just a dream; well, at least as close to the real you as a dream could get." Kirin stated, moving away a bit.

"With you, it was possible. You got me to come back. You and I went through a lot together. You know everything about me. Not many can say that." I told her, walking to her side.

"That's why we had you find me. You've gotten close to Rikku, haven't you?"

I nodded, "You needed me to get here. Rikku would have eventually led me right here every time. Seymour just became a distraction. All of them, in fact. They were convenient pawns for Yu Yevon. Just send those misfits to distract us and it would take the two of us longer to make the link."

"Obviously, he was too confident." Ju noted, "Seymour was purely a distraction, but because of that, Yu Yevon felt he needed more help. Areth sufficed, but your progress with the Maester concerned him. He never wanted to admit a blitzer like you could trouble him, but he knew not to put his ego ahead of success so he arranged to your abandoned pyreflies to defeat you."

"It was a good strategy, ya know? I mean, if you fell for them before, why not now? Problem was, he didn't expect our little Shuyin all grown up like this." Rothel clamored, patting me hard in the back.

"It comes down to ego again, Rothel." I told him, "He never took us seriously in the past and I nearly succeeded in destroying Bevelle single-handedly. Now, even though I'm the one that showed him how to use his unsent talent, he assumed I'd let my demons get the better of me again."

"Now you know everything that lies before you." Larea commented, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm not sure. If Sin is back, we've got a tremendous fight on our hands. I'm not sure they can handle it so it might just fall onto me. What are its weaknesses? Do you know?"

"It used to be the parasitic Yu Yevon hiding inside the Final Aeon." Kai said.

"Final Aeon? Right, when the bond is strong enough, a Final Aeon will be stronger than any Aeon and will overcome the shell. Where's Lenne? I refused Yu Yevon before, but I'll be her Final Aeon now to face him." I exclaimed.

Kirin pulled in close, taking my arm in hers, "We tried, but we're still new to this."

"Then she should be here."

"She'd only be a memory. She faded away with you remember? We brought you back safe and sound, but…"

"It's okay. I know what I have to do." I assured my dearest friend, "Wait for me…"

"Shuyin," Ju called, "I couldn't protect Kirin. That was my folly and shall stay with me forever. I had hoped to give you the means to save Lenne, but I died too soon. Now, you will find your weapon at the beginning."

I nodded to him, clasping my hand with his, "Let's end this."

As I began to walk off, Kirin called out again, "Shuyin!"

Turning to her, she ran to me, "Yu Yevon's a lot stronger now. His Sin is evolved, too. Whatever you're going to do, you have to be careful. Don't forget us who are by your side always."

"I won't."

"I believe in you, Shuyin. We all do. Break away from the chains of fate and come back home."

Kissing Kirin on her forehead, I scattered myself back into pyreflies and left them. My mission would take me where I hadn't gone in so long, but I knew I had to go back. It was what tied us all together, a single moment in time where our histories all stood still. I could complete my promises and fulfill my destiny. Further along the Farplane's upper spheres, I found myself revisiting the series of tunnels I had created as an unsent, each of the paths leading back to a temple on the surface. Taking one of the routes, I guided myself across it and made it to the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth where the modern day Yojimbo resided. Once I was there, I continued onward, bringing myself outside and into the Calm Lands where, right at the base of Mount Gagazet, I found Areth waiting for me.

"Finished?" He asked, his arms crossed when I reformed before him.

Realizing he had expected the mission at Mushroom Rock to end in my possession or defeat, I replied, "Yea, it's almost all done now, huh?"

"And Spira's a goner. Blow this stink hole a new one." He said, looking up into the mountain.

"After all that with your brother, we find ourselves on the same side, eh?"

"You're putting it nicer now?" He commented, letting me know how the shadow acted, "I'm tired. Sure you know that by now."

I nodded to him as he continued, "This world's full of disgusting vermin. Not to sound like an old fogey or anything, but things made more sense in our day, didn't it?"

I scoffed, "Yea, a thousand years under the oaf."

"Hey, that's Master Oaf to you." He mused, giving me a sincere smile instead of the smirk I'd been used to seeing.

For the next few hours, we spoke as if old friends having a regular day together. He made mentions about celebrity gossip during our youth and old hobbies he'd begun to forget given the elapse in time. I was able to talk to him about my childhood and all the moments I had regretted, hoping there was some way to make amends for them. We even discussed openly the event that made us enemies. I apologized for having killed his brother and he not only accepted it, he commented on how several things had gone awry then, no longer holding me wholly accountable for it. He explained that his brother was prone to having one too many and making rash and thoughtless judgements that only came back to haunt him later. I felt as if this was a look into a new life, for both of us, had he not the goal of helping Yu Yevon destroy this world. I wondered if there was another reality out there in which Areth and I had grown up as friends, another life where we weren't at each other's throat. If only that could've been our life. The son of Mikala, friends with the Ace of Zanarkand, imagine the alternatives to war. Areth had been such a proponent to the Machina War, the fighting an excuse to further his own goals. If I hadn't killed his brother, if we had accepted the misunderstanding long ago and grown to be friends, having Bevelle's two heirs as the greatest opponents to the war might have led to not having one at all. At the very least, Zanarkand could have had two tremendous assets on our side. However, that wasn't our life. That was a fantasy that I could no longer hope for. All that was left was to free Areth from his hatred of fate's cruelties and unhook the leash Yu Yevon had bound to his soul. My Lord had gone through an enormous effort to create his pawns and blind them to anything else but his word. Areth had gone from wanting pure revenge for his brother to holding his failures on the whole world. I'd need to remedy that.

"So, Sin up and running yet?" I finally asked him once I turned from the pleasant thoughts of a better outcome to our lives.

"You're awfully talkative now." He enquired, eying me suspiciously.

"Just getting impatient, you know?" I reasoned, "Also, taking out Shuyin… Guess I'm a new man."

"Yea, hope you finally put that crybaby to sleep."

"Don't worry, there's going to be no more tears."

Areth snickered at my comment, turning his face upward to the summit of Gagazet before saying, "The old guy really does have tricks. You know, he's just like us right now. He's just another unsent, but he can do all that. Man, what it must feel like to have so much power and control."

"Still, he can't do it all by himself. He needed those fayth and I thought he needed a Final Aeon as a host to build Sin on."

"Fayth?" He said, telling me he didn't know about them, "Well, if he needs a Final Aeon, he's got one in there. I know that much. He has a host in there with him. I didn't know he didn't tell you about it, but he said it keeps the thing stable."

"So the gravity spells don't do it?"

"Nope, he's been saying how the stronger the host is, the more amplified the tug on the pyreflies becomes. He isn't just making another Sin, after all. This one's supposed to be the biggest."

"Define biggest."

"You already know that story. The original Sin was just to keep Spira under control because Yu Yevon thought technology was what was killing us. Let him believe what he wants." Areth elaborated, "This time, he's been saying those Sins aren't enough. He can't rely on something like that because some idiot might come along and screw up the cycle. This time, Sin has to be under his full control and can't be taken out. Whatever his new host is, it's strong enough to see to that. Not even a month and it's already in the final stages."

"I heard that Sin takes ten years to reach maturity. After that, its feral nature takes over completely and could destroy the planet."

"Isn't that the point, though? Without a host, it takes ten years. With a weak host, it still takes about that long, but with a good host, the story's different. And there's something else now." He said.

"This time, he's a conscious unsent summoner. He knows how to pull in all the pyreflies he's ever going to need. This Sin's going to be a masterpiece." I finished for him.

"Yup, and then this planet's done for."

"All the ones before it, they just won't compare, will they? None of them; nothing can stop it once it's complete."

"Not even that Penance thing can match this." Areth noted, patting me on the shoulder, "This is it. Once the final stages are finished, our mission will be done. How does it feel to know your life meant so much?"

"But is it enough?" My words begged the question for both sides. In keeping with the shadow's purposes, I wondered if Yu Yevon truly wanted the world destroyed like I had wanted. On the other side, I hoped Areth might elaborate our purpose for distracting the group so long with a weapon like this lying in wait.

"He's your leader, you tell me. What is this 'living Farplane' stuff he's been talking about? I'm not sure it'll work, but either way makes no difference to me."

"The living Farplane? That's the core of Spira, what makes life possible in this world. What does that have to do with anything?"

Areth looked at me strangely, "Did Shuyin knock some intelligence out of you? You and the old guy have been talking forever about it. Something about making Sin take Spira into a new planet and start fresh."

A quick scan of the pyreflies I attained from the shadow afforded me no further information, which meant that they had been purified by my claiming them. Areth was waiting for my reply and any poor choice of word gave them what they needed to figure out the truth. I couldn't afford that happening so soon. What was this "living Farplane" stratagem about?

"I meant, is that oaf still on that kick? It'll never work." I chose to say, hoping the idea of starting Spira anew was still against the shadow's beliefs.

"He never stopped. C'mon, cheer up. You never know if humanity will surprise you one day." He told me, shaking me with the hand still on my shoulder.

"Enough." I grunted, walking a few steps toward the mountain, "What is he thinking?"

"I know you were always against it, but it makes sense. This Spira has failed us, all of us. Pull the pyreflies all back into pure form and have the beggars start again. Makes sense to me. What doesn't is how stubborn you've been about letting the world burn. It doesn't solve anything."

"Maybe I'm tired, too." I said to him, "Maybe I've grown bored of waiting for them to give me that surprise."

"Hey," He responded soothingly, "You can't expect a polluted world like this to save itself. We have to do it. Let the new one surprise you."

If I hadn't known otherwise, I would've thought found him to be genuine. "Somehow, I feel as if the Goddesses of Renewing aren't in the business of refurbishing human faults."

"You'll see, Shuyin. When the new world is born out of the ashes of this one, there won't be a Zanarkand or Bevelle. No nonsense rivalries and pointless bickering. My brother will have never died nor any of the rest that followed. Everything will be fair or it won't be allowed to exist. Justice." He began saying, allowing his voice to trail before turning himself into pyreflies to head up Gagazet afterward.

"Justice… Fairness… That was all you were after, even back then, weren't you?" I mumbled to myself, "Your juvenile mind lost itself when your brother died and you blamed it on a world that was irrevocably flawed. It made you see Zanarkand, particularly me, its star, as a taint on Spira. You made it your first target, aided by the Machina War to solve your kingdom's economic shortcomings. Now that you've had a thousand years to reflect and grow, the loss of your heart directed you to see all the negative events occurring through time."

Looking up at the summit, I broke myself into pyreflies and followed my partner to meet our master. The moment we reconstructed ourselves, I saw him. He appeared just as he did that night I went to him for assistance in saving Lenne. As I had guessed, by the time he called on me to become his Final Aeon, there was barely time left to anticipate my rejecting him and so Yunalesca had no choice. My pyreflies reacted to his own and I saw images in my head. I saw how he had fooled the masses, including a weeping Larea, of his plan to immortalize Zanarkand. One by one they fell before him, accumulating into what would be the Master Summon engraved into the summit of Gagazet. Using both my sword and the residual force of existence in Kirin as a catalyst, he encapsulated the fayth's dream in a bubble before consuming their remaining pyreflies along with all the dead left in the city, building the first Sin, but as a human, he could not survive the strain on his own pyreflies to maintain them. An auxiliary spell changed him into a creature that can only draw pyreflies to itself, mindless except to that task, which resulted in the next Sin. He needed Lenne as his shield, someone unrelated and unimaginably pure to fool future generations into bringing forth the Final Aeon. She didn't know enough about the truth to jeopardise the plan unlike his daughter and her own siren's thrall made it more possible to convince the doubtful. I had no need to guess at the fact the shadow had seen the same, but he had hoped to merge with me and stop that plan before the end, culminating in one enormous failure that would rip this world apart.

Upon seeing us, Yu Yevon took notice of my return to form, casting curious but satisfied eyes as he remained hopeless in seeing my actual nature. In the end, he still believed he had nothing to fear from a blitzer because he was a blitzer. Informing us that Sin needed more pyreflies before completion, he said we would need to keep the others occupied and desperate. Areth suggested that we would use the coming storm as a distraction, something I hoped they would see through, but I worried my "betrayal" clouded any hope of that. Then, my Lord Yu Yevon took to the sky and turned into pyreflies, passing off into the Farplane's core. Once he made it there, he'd begin casting an ultimate spell, stronger than that of his parasitic incarnation. Exa Graviton's purpose was to pull Spira's surface pyreflies to him. First, he would excite the fiends, provoking them to Oversoul and mutate, their murders releasing more pyreflies into the atmosphere to be drawn down into the Farplane Core where a new Sin could be completed.

Before I could take any further actions, we saw the Fahrenheit looming in the distance and I saw Areth give me a wink before hiding in the dark side of the mountain. Kneeling over Kirin's grave, I nodded to her. I would keep my promise.

**Author's Note:** In the coming chapters, find out how they will take on the evolved Sin and what price they will have to pay in order to get it done. How strong is this new incarnation and what role will an active Yu Yevon play in creating more of a challenge for them? Once they're done, what will be the condition of Spira? Will the Farplane be affected? Well, probably not. Speaking of which, remember when I said this all happens before Last Mission? Yeah, so I can't do too much permanent damage, but regardless of that, just how will they repair all of the damage already done?


	42. Machina War Resolution

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Hm, been a while, it would seem. Bugger fanfiction for not functioning properly. -_-;;; Well, the rest of these chapters should flow smoothly. Apologies for the lack of updates. I've been kept away quite a bit. That and potatoes. I could never get over the weird roots it sprouts. ^_^;;

haboo, as this is the final segment of this story, you'll figure out the spoilers I didn't reveal to you before. =p

Let's get right back into it! Now that we all know Sin and Yu Yevon have returned and has been the culprit since the beginning, what will the group do? How will they react? We last left them with Lulu finally waking and Shuyin revealing the horrible person that actually rendered her comatose. The chapter following it was only a return to the point Shuyin and Rikku's plan went into effect. In this chapter, we'll see just how they'll manage and what they expect to do next.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 41: Machina War Resolution**

Tidus

"Sin? Sin! Are you nuts? That can't be right!" If you were to ask me to hold it together, then please believe me that this was me holding it together.

"He's telling you the truth. I saw it for myself. I saw what they were planning." Lulu stammered, still pretty much out of it from what they did to her.

"How can this be? Sin was destroyed. We sacrificed all the Aeons so it could be so." Yuna muttered, the tone of voice she was using so weakened, so defeated, but there was nothing I could do for her.

"I know this is horrifying and unbearable. I don't want to put any of you through this, but we have no choice now. Sin is back and so is Yu Yevon. If we don't stop him now, everything you think was sacrificed would have been worthless." Shuyin told us in his usual cold fashion.

"Maybe it was worthless." Yuna started, making each of us turn to her, "What was the point of all of it? Two years ago? Two months ago? What did we ultimately accomplish?"

"Yuna, this isn't the time for that." Shuyin stated.

"I fought for the Eternal Calm because I believed there would be one someday. When I sacrificed my Aeons to stop Sin, it hurt so much, but I thought it would be worth it in the end to give the people of Spira a future. Now…"

"Now, there's just one more step, Yunie." Rikku interjected.

At that time, I took it upon myself to defend her since the others weren't getting it, "Rikku, Shuyin, I get it. You wanna keep up this fight, but just look around. We're battered and bruised and, let's face it, we're done. It took everything to stop Sin the last time and now he's ten times stronger. What's left for us to do?"

"So you'd rather sit back and watch the end happen in front of you?" Paine blurted, coming right up to my face.

"He's right, you know." Shuyin said, looking out of Wakka and Lulu's hut at the sky, "If this is all we are now, we're long done. Our spirit's been broken. Game over."

"Is that all you're going to say?" Lulu struggled, limping her way towards him.

Wakka quickly caught her when she was about to go down and got her into a seat, saying for her, "When it was tough and we were down during Yuna's pilgrimage, what did we do in the end, ya? We broke the rules and took on Yunalesca herself! I never thought, no way in this lifetime was I gonna be doing that, but we all made that choice and we beat Sin, ya? Just 'cause things look bad now don't mean you give in."

"That's all well and good, but this isn't like Yuna's first pilgrimage, now is it?" Shuyin replied, challenging Wakka's statement.

"Shuyin, we can't just give up now! Look how far we've come!" Rikku whined, jumping in front of him and shaking him by the shoulders.

"I think it's more we've gone too far. We didn't think. We kept marching onward like good little soldiers, but we didn't even know who the enemy's general was. Isn't that right, Yuna? What are we fighting for? It seems like such a lost cause."

I was about to clock him a good one, but Paine stopped me. She didn't say anything, but she gave me a look and I figured it out even though I knew not even she really had. Shuyin wasn't trying to give up. It was Yuna, it was me that was giving in. Good reasons or no, if we gave up then Spira was really done for. Shuyin was trying to convince her about her pilgrimage, what had happened then. He was trying to show that even when the odds are stacked like this, when even the good guys were rooting for the bad guys, you have to push on. He didn't know what she'd been through like I did. I was there the entire pilgrimage. I saw the changes in her after Bevelle. I saw how broken she was when she found out it was all a lie, that even getting as far as Zanarkand and finding the Final Aeon wasn't going to do anything but repeat history. We stopped Sin eventually, but the cost of it was great. Never mind me dying, Yuna was forced to watch each of her Aeons ripped from her soul and forced into battle against us, forced to die for us. To go from that to what Shuyin did to her later to what's going on now, really, did we actually still hope for an end?

"I wanted to save Spira. That was a worthy cause." Yuna slowly began to mumble.

"Save Spira? And for how long is that going to last? We've tried fighting head on. That ends in failure." Shuyin grunted.

Yuna took in a deep breath, "Shuyin, I know you don't want anybody else to die like we saw your friends die in the war. I know you don't want anybody else to feel all the pain, but there's nothing we can do about it. Sin is overwhelming us and all we can do is try to hold off this ending for as long as we can." She said softly.

"Looks like mission accomplished." Rikku exclaimed with a smile.

"What?" Yuna still didn't get it.

"Shuyin wanted to get you fired up. Looks like he did a good job. So, does that mean we're going after Yu Yevon?" I said.

"How did you know that was going to work?" Paine asked him.

Shuyin smiled, "Because I said all that before to Lenne, but to try and get her not to fight. It only pushed her further. I figured Yuna would do likewise."

"Shuyin, this story won't end like that one. I give you my word." Yuna declared, her eyes burning with hope just like before.

Rikku jumped in right after with a hug to her cousin, saying, "No way! We'll get it right this time! The Eternal Calm is here- to- stay!"

And that was that. Somehow, our ragtag band of worn out soldiers were going to pick ourselves back up and save the world one more time. It sounded like such a fantasy, but why can't we live the fantasy? Maybe it's that people stopped believing in the fairytale ending that we stopped getting them all through that Age of Sin. It took Yuna to go out on a limb and hope there would be a perfecting ending somewhere down the line for us to get that one hundred percent complete fantasy and start this Eternal Calm.

But now we had a big problem. Sure it was great to think about getting your perfect fairytale ending, but how to go about getting it was a real issue. We had to take out Sin, and not just regular old Sin whose core was my dad and somebody rooting for our team. This Sin was gonna be trouble. This one had already shown it was capable of putting huge sinkholes all across Spira without so much as giving anybody a sign it was actually around. Just thinking about what it could do with its full strength was enough for me to want a plan.

"That's all well and good, guys, but how comes to mind, ya? What you got up your sleeves this time?" Wakka said in a nod to Shuyin's words earlier.

"Yea, what's next for us?" I added, "We can't just go in there guns blazing."

"Because that's what this was all about, right hotshot?" Paine sarcastically replied.

"Do you have a plan, Shuyin?" Yuna asked, walking up to him.

Shuyin took in a breath and looked at me, "Zanarkand."

"Zanarkand?" I said in confusion.

"That's what ties us all together. He'll make a move there… Fix the problem."

"The problem?" Rikku asked, curious enough for all of us.

"Me."

We left right then and there, the common opinion being that Yu Yevon was ready and waiting and any more time we gave him only let that Sin get stronger. Wakka kept watch over Lulu despite how much she wanted to come and help. There was no way either of them were ready for this. They'd been out of the game for over two years and Lulu just recovered from being sent into a coma. We also decided against sending for any help outside our group, basically realizing that we were just the first wave. Spira would need to be on red alert if we failed. The Fahrenheit's crew scrambled to get us on course to Zanarkand, which would take us a while from Besaid. After they got us there, Rikku told her dad to get the word out to the leaders immediately that Sin was back and worse than ever.

In the meantime, we all started talking about what plan we were going to use on the monster this time. Shuyin was unapproachable, hiding back up on the roof as always. Not even Rikku bothered to go after him this time. Without him there to ask, none of us could figure out how he planned to get Yu Yevon's attention in Zanarkand. Paine guessed that Sin was already parked there just like we found Shuyin waiting for us at Mt. Gagazet. She said that it would be as good a plan as any. We'd charge in full speed and catch him by surprise. It was true we were shorthanded from the days of Yuna's pilgrimage and the Fahrenheit's weapons hadn't been upgraded, but the three of them had their new Special Dresspheres this time, each of them a powerhouse on their own. Also, me and Shuyin were at the top of our game, more than likely better than we were two years ago.

Yuna had a better idea. She considered how meticulous Shuyin had been about this whole endeavour so a full on sortie didn't seem like him. That was closer to what we'd be thinking since all of us were holding out for when this would all be over. She told us that it felt like he was going to bait Sin in Zanarkand so we wouldn't have to find it when we were ready.

"The ruins tie all of you together." She said to me, "We did use the hymn to summon it before."

"But those ruins have been sitting there the whole time. Why would Sin attack it now?" Rikku questioned her, putting a finger to her chin.

"It's not just the ruins to us." I started, my eyes staring ahead, "To Yu Yevon, Shuyin, and me, that used to be home. Looks like Shuyin's trying to remind him of that."

When we were over Bevelle, Paine decided she'd still do a check to make sure we didn't end up crashing right into it, and as Yuna said, Sin wasn't anywhere around there. Still the pressure was being felt even if it wasn't in front of our eyes. It was almost like two years ago when none of us wanted to fight anymore, but we each knew there was no way to protect what we cared about without pushing forward.

I took a look at the navigations HUD, at the mountain coming up over the horizon and remembered when I decided I'd do whatever was necessary to save Yuna. Fayth told me I was just a dream and stopping Sin meant I'd disappear. Auron told me it was my dad up there and if we were going to take down Sin, that meant killing him along with it. Then, dad told me the rest. He told me, even if he didn't say it to me direct, that this was it. After that bug version of Yu Yevon disappeared, I felt it, that my body was cracked. I was hoping for a miracle to make what I said before the fight untrue, but I saved her so it didn't really matter.

That's how I got my miracle. Two years and another adventure later, she gave me my miracle. There was no chance I was letting Sin take that away from me now. I wouldn't disappear this time for that thing. I made myself believe that that would be enough to stay even if it was foolish. Maybe it had nothing to do with me how Shuyin and the rest of those guys came back after I did, but it was unnatural that I was back. I outlasted my welcome from that miracle, pretended it could just stay this way. Yuna deserved more than this spiraling war.

"When this is over, we're gonna set it right." I said to nobody in particular.

"Hey, T-" Rikku was just about to say when we were caught in a hail of debris.

"Multiple concussions." Paine announced, "Looks like… meteors?"

As the alarms rang, Rikku rushed over to the scanners and said she was getting a tiny blip. Cid had the airship drop for an emergency landing in the Calm Lands, but the hits were getting harder the closer we came. The hail of rocks made it impossible to drop without crashing so he had to take us back up and try to clear them, which obviously sounded ridiculous until the rocks actually did stop hitting us.

"Everyone okay?" Cid asked us before going over to check the crew for a damage report.

The intercom came on, with Shuyin saying, "Guys, you might want to join me on the roof."

Looking at each other, we all nodded to confirm nobody was hurt and slowly made our way to the lift. Shuyin had his back to us when we arrived and he had his sword at his side. When we got closer to him, we saw who he had his attention to.

"Sorry about the rain. Hope I didn't spoil anything." Areth's twisted voice purred.

"Was wondering when you'd show. Can't imagine you'd let a loose end like me hang around this long." Shuyin told him, shifting his grip on his weapon.

Taking it as a sign, I got Brotherhood ready and stood next to him, "So what? You're appetizers?"

"He's the stooge." Shuyin mused, putting his sword back in its sheath and walking a few steps up.

"Depends on your point of view. I prefer to think of myself as a free agent now."

"You can't be a _free_ agent when you're still playing for a team."

"Must there really be a team to want to rip you to pieces?"

"I'm captain." Paine blurted out, raising her hand.

"See, there is a team." Shuyin said, taking a few more steps forward while looking around the sky, "So you gonna tell us why we're here or do I beat it out of you?"

And just like that, the whole area around the airship changed. The sky went dark and there was a thick smell of mortar and blood. The surface of the Fahrenheit crumpled and smoldered, broken bodies coming into view. From where Areth was standing, searchlights shot out at us, blinding us. On our end, a few groups of spellcasters running out to them with their Flare spells blazing made it bright enough to let us see they were taking on machina. A few winged creatures soared overhead and used Sonic Wings on them, but couldn't hold their own and were blasted by the cannons.

"Calm Lands front, eh?" Shuyin asked, probably remembering it from somewhere since it wasn't ringing any bells for any of us.

Areth didn't answer us, though. No, this time he was very different. He looked to be burning with anger and the pyreflies that were making the airship look like one night in the Calm Lands during the infamous Machina War bent around him. They literally turned tail when they got near him and made it look like he was walking in some extra-dimensional space around us. I looked at Shuyin and from his eyes I could tell this was new. Shuyin had trouble gauging the guy even with all their history. For what seemed like hours, we just watched the war happening around us. A few times Rikku would try to ignore it and rush him, but she'd only end up stopping herself because none of us were budging with her. In fact, if it wasn't for Paine at her usual poise, none of us were even readying for a fight. The explosions of Aeons destroying machina lit up the sky and deepened the contrast of the shadows falling on Areth's face, but he didn't make a move either.

Since I couldn't feel any dangers despite our enemy standing right there only twenty or so feet away, I decided to really watch what he was showing us and, as it turned out, that was the plan. Looking at Shuyin, I could see even he was wondering just why we were being shown a scene from the war, but that's when we both realized that this was exactly what we needed to gauge the coming battle.

The moment he turned his own eyes to mine, I felt we both remembered how Areth as an unsent worked. He created illusions built from what he wanted us to experience. What he wanted us to experience had been everything he saw wrong with Spira in life. Most of it had been about his nemesis, but what we were all failing to see so far was that it was all what Shuyin has done to him. The first had been a vision of his brother being killed. After he took Yuna, he tried to show me what Shuyin had done to his girlfriend. But the key to those visions he created was that it was all about him. We had the shadow to deal with for so long that everything went back to Shuyin, but Areth was too self-centered for that. It only worked for their plan that a lot of what Areth hated just happened to involve him, but it was really just coincidental. Areth actually hated Spira and went along with Yu Yevon's plan because he hated Spira. He hated losing his brother. He hated how his brother's murderer ended up being a star. He hated that he could never get his revenge. He hated that his girlfriend couldn't help him get that revenge either. He hated failing at practically every turn and he never bothered to get it through his head why he kept failing.

"This is the night Trista died, isn't it?" Shuyin finally said, piecing it all together.

Yuna turned to me with a surprised look, but I nodded to her reassuringly and motioned to keep watching how it would play out. Voices were suddenly heard from behind Rikku and two women ran past her toward Shuyin's side.

"Lenne!" I heard Yuna gasp.

When I turned my attention to Shuyin, I could see he was shaken. At the moment, I could feel how much he wanted to be by her side like I had two years ago when I was fading away. Unconsciously, I pulled Yuna closer to me as we continued to watch and, for the while, I couldn't help but see this scene like it was back then, on this same airship. She was so close to him, just like Yuna was, but I was disappearing and I could barely even keep myself together let alone hold her like I wanted. It pained me to sense just how much he wanted to reach out to her, knowing she wasn't really there, but just holding to the hope that being near her made it real enough.

Instead, as the pyreflies distorted around his own stunned frame, he forced himself to stand with a deep breath and in a whisper said, "This is the night we all died, isn't it?"

As he said those words, Areth's image shook and another Areth entered the view in front of him, his hand clasped to Trista, her Yojimbo steadily sauntering up from behind them. Lenne, her companion, and Shuyin all grimaced as more explosions rained around them. Shuyin began taking it all in, nodding to us and explaining that this was the attack on the Calm Lands on the last night of the Machina War.

"That's not even you. He's just your girl's entourage." He growled.

"My worthless clone." Areth retorted, hacking away the image with his sword.

This surprised Shuyin again, though we would soon find out why Areth had been acting so different this time. As the battle started, the image of Areth reformed and was pitifully outmatched by the girls. Lenne brought out this Yunalesca look-alike Aeon, calling her Elumina, while her companion called out the Magus Sisters. Yojimbo was handling those three pretty easily, but all the taunting by Trista and Areth took a toll on Lenne's concentration. Apparently, they had killed Shuyin earlier, mangled up his body, and told her she could find him out there hanging on Bevelle's walls. Larea, who was named during the conversation, tried to convince Lenne that they were just messing with her, but Lenne was starting to act much different than how Yuna and Rikku had been describing her to me before.

"I need to end this." She said, floating off the ground.

Within two or three minutes, she'd completely destroyed the "worthless clone" of Areth, her constant Holy spells effectively annihilating the guy's body. With him gone, it was just Yojimbo and Trista left. The samurai had actually gotten the better of the sisters, the Zanmato taking all three down in one clean stroke, but then it came to Elumina and, unlike Yunalesca, the Aeon just evaporated him with a bright light. Trista left defenseless, Lenne rushed right towards her, even pushing Larea aside when she tried to hold her back.

"Lenne?" Shuyin gasped in horror.

I could tell not even he had seen this side to Lenne, but the scene kept playing forward. Lenne rushed Trista, who pulled up her, apparently, diamond-studded summoning staff in defence, and tackled her to the ground. She then wrenched the staff from her hands, inadvertently slicing open her throat with the jagged diamond tip during the struggle. At first, she panicked and Larea tried to heal her, but by the time Trista's blood formed a pool around them, Lenne stopped the other summoner and shook her head.

"She's already gone. I have to get to Bevelle." Lenne told her.

"What do you mean? You'll never get past the line." Larea replied.

"You heard what they said. All of their forces are here in the Calm Lands. I've got a chance and I have to know that he's alive."

"I understand. Stay safe, Lenne."

"Hold the line. I'll be back when I can." Lenne said, calling back Elumina to summon Bahamut and taking off out of the range of the illusion.

Larea shook her head, "No… You won't."

"They left her to rot out here." Areth grumbled, his blade shifting in his grasp.

"What did you make her do?" Shuyin seethed, "You forced her to kill in vengeance. My Lenne."

I saw that this was leading to nowhere good so I got Brotherhood back in a ready position, shouting, "Alright, show and tell time is over Areth!"

"Yeah, time to kick butt!" Rikku added, getting out her daggers.

"I couldn't agree more." Areth said lowly, vanishing into the night.

"Keep on your guard. He isn't that crafty." Shuyin told us, getting back to back with Paine.

I covered those two while Yuna and Rikku took point. The illusion only got darker and more images of soldiers and machina began to appear. Shuyin and Paine warned us Areth was going to take the shape of one of them that seemed the most mundane so we wouldn't consider him, but since we had been watching the war for a while now, all of them looked mundane.

"On second thought…" I started to say, noticing that one particular soldier wasn't marching around with the rest of them.

Unfortunately for me, I had to go and signal the others and, before Yuna could even get a shot out, he leaped out of the crowd and kicked Paine away. Shuyin twisted quickly enough to clash swords with him, but the illusion suddenly shrank until it was just around the two of them and we couldn't get back in. A barrier formed right along the edge of it, but some of the soldiers were still on the outside with us.

"These guys are fighting harder than the usual dirt bags." Rikku complained, having been cornered by Areth's imitation soldiers.

Yuna was having her own problems trying to pierce through their thick armour with her bullets and Paine had her hands full trying to cut through row after row that were still pouring out of the illusion. Their numbers started to grow a little too fast and there was an air of intimidation going around. The soldiers were looking tough and well-organized and we were scattered, isolated, and outnumbered. At first, I was caught by it, too, but then I started paying attention to how the others were reacting to our targets, the doubt they started showing, and I realized even that was just another illusion. Seeing how Shuyin was having some trouble with his own fight, I knew it was…

"Time for a little Slice & Dice!" I shouted, charging up for it and running through a whole line of them.

Anything I came across was cut, but instead of my usual back and forth, this time I made a b line for the illusion. I used the last bit of strength on it and managed to shatter the barrier, coming in on them just in time to break another clash. I think I also said something corny because in the middle of the fight, both of them just stopped and looked at me with a slanted glance. I shrugged and we kept going, Areth getting out another meteor shower like the one that hit the Fahrenheit before.

"Areth's Overdrive! He calls it 'Doom'. Just brace yourself and try to dodge!" Shuyin told me, blocking an overhead strike.

He wasn't kidding either because the meteors came faster than even the worst that a Behemoth King was capable of and they almost seemed to be targeting us. As they landed, copies of Areth walked out of the craters and started attacking, except they were also illusions and it was making fighting him a lot harder.

"Huh, well that's a new trick." I heard Shuyin say as he sliced through a few of them only to miss since they were nothing more than images.

The two of us got back to back and waited for something to catch our eye about them. That wasn't happening. They just kept getting closer until they were so close that we had to react to them. Then it occurred to me that Shuyin was supposed to be empowered by his old pyreflies and should've been able to negate anything Areth was doing.

"So why aren't you?" I asked him after he growled about it himself.

Shuyin pulled me hard to face him, "I'm sorry if you don't agree to this, but I'm not trying to take him down. I need to make good on a promise. I need to save Areth from all of this."

"Look, I get that you have a lot of demons to work out in there, but really? Right now? Can't you just write a tell-all autobiography about it like regular celebrities?" I said, trying to get out of his grip.

But he was firm about this, "This has everything to do with what we're about to attempt. You just have to trust me on it."

"I understand you, I do, but I can't help you with Areth if I can't even find him."

Shuyin thought for a moment before noticing the images surrounding us and nodded, saying, "You're right. I'll do what I can."

"And I'll take him down." Shuyin nodded.

As soon as he let me go, I rolled through the images. Pyreflies burst out of Shuyin and swarmed the illusion, melting it all away. Areth, knowing his work was being undone, which would expose him to a fair fight, revealed himself and lunged for him. That was all I needed to catch up and catch him in the back with the Brotherhood. He turned fast enough to block, but I was already on my next move, sweeping him with my leg and kicking him with my other foot as I came around. Since Shuyin was working his magic, Areth was stuck on solid and that meant I could kick and punch and stab and slash to my heart's content. Areth rolled a few feet away before recovering and getting back on his feet, but by that time I was again right on top of him, slamming down my sword with a hard-hitting Spiral Cut. He was ready for me this time, though, and ducked out of the way to a good position for kicking me in the face. I stumbled back a few steps and found him firing a few rounds at me. Shuyin leaped in to block them and caught Areth's sword in a parry before he could get to me, but it was awkward on his end and the lack of footing let Areth plant a knee into his back, sending him into the ground. On Areth's recovery, though, I managed to lay a straight punch right to his jaw, tumbling forward right after so I could clip him again with my heel.

"Ready?" I asked my mirror.

With Areth still seeing stars, both me and Shuyin got another overdrive surge up, charging after him with our Energy Rains. He ran forward and flip kicked off Areth, but instead of firing the bolts at the ground, he shot them down to me while I was still charging. Once I was done, I lifted the Brotherhood over my head and spun it, collecting each of the bolts and forming a spiral out of them. I released my own energy into it, letting it take up the center in the shape of a twisting orb. With a sharp cut in Areth's direction, I shot the winding vortex of force at him and he was taken for a ride. However, the move took too long and he actually got in a block, holding it off as his sword looked like it was absorbing it.

"Time to DIE!" He screamed, tracing two fingers along the other edge of his weapon, "Zantetsuken!"

The vortex melted into his blade as it burned with white fire, changing shape into a newer, much more threatening sword. Before I knew what was going on, Shuyin tossed me back and took the full impact of the hit. It completely scattered his pyreflies and in the aftermath, all of them just floated around, finding it hard to come back together. For a few seconds, I worried that that was it for him, but I realized that Areth must have thought the same thing. It was a trick and Areth was falling for it, which gave me the opening I needed. From the pyreflies, I could feel some of that energy returning to me, enough so that I only needed a little bit more of a stamina recharge to execute one more overdrive. Quickly, I jumped toward him and started swinging wildly, knowing that I did catch him off guard. I cleaved a good chunk out of his shoulder guard and landed a hit on his middle, tearing through his shirt before he finally made a counter, going for a spinning horizontal slash at my neck. Ducking down, my fist landed hard on his gut to send him reeling into a back tumble, and even after he got back up, I swung down with an overhead strike. He caught it, but the force of it sent him on one knee and cut a little into his sword. Using it as a groove, I managed to wrench the sword from him then leaped into a backflip to kick him in the chin. That threw him back a few more steps and got him in a daze, a perfect setup for my blitz.

Building it up, I roared and ran straight for him, slicing at him left and right. Since he was unarmed and I just knocked him for a loop, there was no way he could dodge or block any of them, the Brotherhood landing clean strikes everywhere. Now, barely able to keep on his feet, I stepped off him and sent myself into the air. Shuyin reformed himself by then, his right hand spinning the World Champion. Once I was in position, he tossed it to me in a pass and I flipped back, kicking it hard right back down into Areth. It struck home and exploded, leaving behind his battered and broken body, struggling to stay on his feet and fading fast.

"It's over." Shuyin said to him once I landed, "Time to let go."

"No, that time hasn't come. You knew when I could finally let it go and you took that from me. So now that time is impossible." Areth told him, his body disappearing into a cloud of pyreflies, "It is not over, Shuyin, and it never will be."

The last of him melted away into the cloud and Shuyin walked right into them, letting them flow through his hands. Then, he turned into the distance a second before all the pyreflies shot out in the same direction, streaming away from the Fahrenheit.

"You're wrong, Areth." He muttered, taking a look at each of us, "That time is coming."

**Author's Note:** So Areth's finally been taken by Yu Yevon into Sin. This leaves them to deal with their one final enemy, though it's a sure bet Areth will be active on the inside. Will they be ready for him? Will they be ready for all the challenges to come? Just how do they plan on fighting this time? It is doubtful they could organise another planetwide Hymn of the Fayth and that Yu Yevon would be as affected as Jecht by it. How do they expect to lure Sin to the surface? Can they ever be ready for it once it arrives? Find out next time!


	43. Zanarkand's Prime I

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** As promised, this chapter will start to focus on having their enemy actually reveal itself so they can fight it. Currently, this new Sin and its Yu Yevon core have mostly absorbed the Farplane and are working sinkholes into the bodies of water on Spira to absorb the rest of the planet from within. It will have to be something big if they want to disrupt Sin from that.

To my reviewers: Where are my reviews?

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 42: Zanarkand's Prime I**

Rikku

"That was super cool!" I yelled, hopping up to dream boy and leaning up against his shoulder, "But I thought I was supposed to toss you the ball."

As usual, he just put a hand up to the back of his head and scratched. It was so easy to catch him off-guard, but he really did do a number on Areth with that Blitz Ace. Something told me there was more to their double-team than just beating up on Areth, but Shuyin was already working on the next stage of things and I wasn't about to get left behind.

I skipped over to him and tapped him lightly in the arm, "To Zanarkand?"

He turned to me and nodded with a smile, "To Zanarkand."

There wasn't much left to the trip, but it was long enough for me to ask him about what had gone on just before. Apparently, that was Areth's last stand. He wanted to prove to Shuyin that he was fighting for justice and to avenge his brother's death and Lenne killing Trista, which was a whole other situation that I asked him about later, but really Areth was tired and resentful. There was a part of him that knew he was wrong this whole time, or so Shuyin told me, but there was a side to him that was too strong and wouldn't let go of his hate and regret. It was the thing that kept him targeting Shuyin and Zanarkand all his life and it was the thing that got him stuck on Spira as an unsent. From that emotion, he ended up seeing something close to what Shuyin saw in his thousand years, but Areth stayed twisted since that was all he had while Yunie brought Lenne back to Shuyin.

"I was just as surprised about Lenne as you were, Rikku." He admitted, "I've never seen her so cold and indifferent to a murder."

"She wanted to save you from yourself. It was all she could think about and it kept her going in the Songstress Dressphere all those years." I suggested.

He got quiet for a bit after that and walked over to one of the windows. When I looked, I saw that we were just getting past Mount Gagazet, which meant we were getting really close.

"It'll all be over soon, Rikku."

"Promise me you'll stay." I said plainly.

I didn't want him to go. Last time we settled on fighting Sin, we lost one of him. This time was only worse, but I didn't care. I didn't want to let him go. And still, I knew there was no guarantee. There was no guarantee any of us would make it back. Sin was bad enough last time and that was a normal version. Now we were going up against a complete Sin with Yu Yevon in the driver's seat?

"And I still don't care." I said out loud, "Promise me you'll stay!"

Shuyin looked right at me but didn't know what to tell me. What did I really expect him to say? But I already stood by and watched Yunie go on her suicide mission and then I went along with her man's suicide mission. I was there for the days she looked like she just wanted to give up and forced herself to hold it together for everybody else. I watched everybody pretend that life was back to normal again, when it obviously wasn't. I dated Gippal of all people just to get over what had happened for goodness sake! I wasn't about to go through it again for the same dumb fish!

"Shuyin, pro-" I tried to repeat.

"We're here kiddies, now get yer butts movin' an' git off my ship! C'mon, we got a planet ta save!" Pops shouted over the coms, awful timing as usual.

Shuyin bolted as soon as vydran came on, making for the lift where everybody else was headed. Vydran had told us that the airship took a few big hits to the hull and external plates and couldn't even effectively land let alone deal with Sin. He had the Fahrenheit hover over the entrance to the ruins instead and we were going to use the same deployment that we used in Bevelle during the pilgrimage. The cables shot out and latched onto the broken brick floor and each of us took one to slide down.

I was the last one down and most of them were already much ahead of me when I landed. Shuyin had already gone ahead and gazed at his old home one more time. The others didn't really know what to make of it. I don't think any of us knew how effective this strategy of waiting for Sin in the Zanarkand Ruins was going to be, but I trusted that there was a reason we were here.

"Alright, I'm ready to begin." Shuyin suddenly said to us, turning back to us before walking a few steps deeper into the ruins.

"Begin? Begin what?" The dream asked.

We would soon find out as he stretched his arms out and exclaimed, "I call on you, people of Zanarkand. I call on you in a time we never imagined, in a world on the brink. I call on you because we were betrayed and now we know the face of that traitor."

In the moments he started to talk to them, the pyreflies changed their typical whistle to a terrible groan. Stray pyreflies started fluttering from the debris and swirled around him like they understood. More and more gathered and we were beginning to feel a sadness in each of them. Their groans echoed the lives they lost to the Machina War and the years to come after it.

"Come our lost friends and neighbours, brothers and sisters, lives never lived and loves lost to the ether, come together now! Forget those scorned dreams of our sacrificed past and unite in our present to fight for the future!"

Just like that, the huge swarm of pyreflies surrounding the skies of Zanarkand flooded straight for us and surrounded Shuyin. Slowly, they started to dissolve into the ground and spread evenly across it, expanding over every surface. From where Shuyin stood, the ruins began to melt away, shifting with the pyreflies until it looked brand new. The cracked and uneven roads mended themselves and paved forward between rebuilt lampposts lighting gigantic towers piling marble, steel, and concrete back into place. Luxurious fountains and waterfalls that hadn't worked for ages sprouted anew and huge view screens started showing their advertisements again. The whole city stretched out right in front of us. This was Shuyin's plan all along. Zanarkand was back.

"My goodness!" Yunie gasped, holding her hand over her mouth.

I knew how much this meant to my cousin, but at that moment, all I could think about was how much I had really wanted it. Having lived in a mechanical base most of my life, the city magnified everything I remembered about Home. What was better, it wasn't an illusion like Areth had come up with last time. The pyreflies of Zanarkand were holding steady and truly rebuilt this giant metropolis we had only heard legends about. I remember vydran used to tell me about how airships covered the skies in the past and each one had a designation and purpose. They corresponded to several bases and could be used for anything from diplomatic missions to advertising. What Shuyin had these pyreflies make didn't include those airships in the Zanarkand sky, but I could see lots of companies, some even with symbols I recognized from the Celsius' database. I started running to the edges of the street to see what was underneath. I analysed all the lights and digital map readouts. There was so much I wanted to see.

"There won't be a nut left unexamined in this city if Rikku keeps this up." I heard Yunie say.

"Oh, there'll be one left." Paine suggested with that usual downie downer tone.

Lucky for me, I wasn't the only one excited about Zanarkand. "Whoa, everything is here! The old cinema, the Digiplex, the pubs, those museum walls I used to do backflips off of, everything!"

"The museums you used to backflip off of?" Shuyin asked, having been quiet since renovating the ruins.

"Yea, you mean you didn't?"

I think everyone was expecting something like, "No, but I once maimed someone behind one." So when he said, "I didn't realize they'd know that part about me. Did you sprain your left ankle the first time, too? I remembered trying very hard to act as though I meant to do that while I limped to the back to wince for the next few minutes", everybody's mouths dropped.

"No, I got my first one in perfectly. That is, until Auron clocked me one for leaving a shoeprint on the marble." Dream boy explained, rubbing the back of his head.

"Why were you backflipping off of museum walls?" Yunie asked them.

In unison, they both replied, "Because it sucked!"

"At least, back then I thought so." Shuyin said, rubbing the back of his head, too, "I was a curious kid and museum curators don't like it when you ask them stuff they don't know. I don't like it when they get snarky because they can't answer you properly. And finally, museum security doesn't like kids giving curators broken noses so I backflipped off their wall and left a heel print for them."

"I was doing it for a girl."

Paine immediately clasped her hand on my shoulder to turn me to her, saying, "I should be saying 'why am I not surprised'. Rikku, what's wrong with this picture?"

"Didn't think he had it in him?" I said with a sly gaze.

"It's been hard to show who I used to be. I suppose without this old Zanarkand, I've been lost in the aftermath of the war. But we've come so far and I feel that this is it." Shuyin said, walking over to Yunie, "You feel it, too, don't you? The question is: Can we make it through?"

"I know we can." Yunie told him.

"However, you know it isn't going to be as simple as it was before."

"I'll do what needs to be done. We've been through too much for me not to try everything."

Shuyin nodded and smiled, "Good answer. Now, what say me and my _brother_ here navigate for a while. I'm sure there are a few places you could all see before we start."

The suggestions came in relentlessly while we walked. Paine kept asking about sphere technology and weapons manufacture. Yunie was so not herself, pointing at every pretty building and asking what it was for. I, for one, was totally relaxed…

"Ooh ooh, how does that work?" Okay, mostly relaxed.

"Sorry, not an engineer. I think it's something like there's a machina that collects the moisture in the air and concentrates it into water to generate the fall and then at the bottom there's a thing that collects that, filters it, and provides pure water for the whole building." Shuyin explained, but he was scratching his head the whole time.

"I thought it was a pump at the bottom that pumped it back up so they just reused the same water and the stuff at the top is filtered used water from the building." His _brother_ said.

"Yea, I guess that makes sense, too. You think maybe somebody's just sitting back there casting Watera spells?" Shuyin asked.

"Wouldn't have that much magic."

"They could be taking shifts, right?"

"That'd be too much of a waste of funding, wouldn't it?"

"You have a point… Hm, we'll go with the used water and pump it back up theory." Shuyin concluded, but my hand was already planted against my face.

We had a few more of those discussions with some other buildings and those weird multi-level roads that they had all over the place. Some stuff they knew about. Other stuff was them telling us their dumb theories again. Dream boy actually knew a few more details than Shuyin did, which surprised all of us, but those two guessed that since he was a dream of the fayth that maybe some of those fayth that made him put the information into him by accident.

"Huh, with all the fun we've been having, I don't think we were really paying much attention to where we were headed." Shuyin said, "Everyone, this is the Zanarkand Spire. It's the headquarters of our city's leaders."

"Leaders… like Yu Yevon?" I asked him, hiding behind him.

"Yea, like him. I remember the last time I saw this place. Bevelle got the upper hand on us. All our summoners were out on the Calm Lands and they went around them and hit us with everything."

"That's the night you went to find Vegnagun?" Yunie asked him, her voice shaking.

"There was a lot more to that night than just Vegnagun, Yuna." He said, scanning the entire tower, "We should check it out. There might be some secrets we could find in there. We'll need all the help we can get."

Inside, it looked like a really big library, smelled like one, too. All the books were old, but none of them were dusty. I guess the old guy really liked reading. Paine went right to them, pulling out volume after volume to see if she could find something on Sin. Yunie was busy just marveling at the whole place, wandering about like she was looking into moving in. Her man went with her, probably the first time he was ever here, too, but Shuyin just stared out, standing just a few steps from the entrance. He looked like he was taking it hard, like those awful memories were coming back again on him. I turned away and went over to a messy desk to see if maybe I could find something to distract him with, but all that was there was a ton of loose papers with lots of stuff written on them and I was sure it wasn't going to interest him anything that Yu Yevon wrote. Still, I kept looking and even tried organising the mess. Then, I saw a page that wasn't written like the rest. The handwriting was softer and I didn't know what came over me, but I decided to show Shuyin that page.

"Hey, I found something that doesn't look like it was written by the same guy that wrote all these. Think it might be anything useful?" I asked, handing it to him.

Shuyin took a deep breath and smiled at me, knowing that I just wanted him not to focus on his past anymore, "Thanks, Rikku, let me have a look."

But that's when his brow furrowed and he looked really carefully at it, making me ask him, "What? What is it?"

"This note, it was written by Lenne." He explained, reading it to himself, "Breaking. Yea, we really could use a break. Oh well, it isn't important, but thank you for showing it to me."

He handed it back to me so I could return it, but I thought it could still be useful so I folded it up and put it into my pouch. After all, if the guy got caught up in his past again, I could just flash it in front of his face to bring him out of it. That was useful. Paine also found a book about how to call Sin, but all she could take from it was that it bragged about how strong the thing was and Yunie couldn't understand the text on how to create it to let us know any more than we already did about it. It looked like Yu Yevon's headquarters was a bust so we made our way out.

"Right, now we still have some time left before Sin arrives. I know how much this city means to some of you so why not take advantage of it while we can. Let's split up and rendezvous back at the entrance in say an hour?" Shuyin suggested, starting to walk off.

I quickly caught up with him and linked his arm with mine, saying, "Uh uh, you're not ditching me that easily,"

"Fair enough. So where to?" I smiled.

The walk to Kirin's house was rather far from where we had been, but Shuyin was himself again the whole way. We talked about the stories he told me about her and laughed about all the fun they had had with each other. He told me new stories, ones I hadn't heard before. He went into more detail about them this time, telling me all the things Kirin had done for him when they were growing up, all the little places they used to go, the places she used to drag him to after his parents died, even pointing out his old house when he was growing up.

"This is it. Kirin's place." Shuyin announced, showing me a house that was bigger than some of the Yevon Temples.

"That's a house?"

"Well, Spira wasn't quite the same as the Spira you guys know. Believe me, I was lucky I possessed Nooj and had the Chateau to call home because that guest hut in Besaid was not exactly five star."

"Five star?"

"Never mind."

As soon as I entered through the door, I felt at home. Everything about it made me feel safe and comfortable. I thought to myself how all the furniture was placed just like I would… well, if I even knew what half the furniture was, but they all looked like I would put them where they were. After running around to look at everything, my next step was to take a look at the pictures over the mantle. I knew right away the one person with Kirin in the middle picture frame. It was Jurama. He looked out from the frame and I felt tears well up inside.

"You know, I get it." I started saying, "All the things she did, they were the same things I've been doing."

I looked up from it, turned my attention to Shuyin leaning against a table with a look of concern, and said, "Just that I understand why. I'm not trying to mean any more than that."

Shuyin didn't say anything, instead taking his eyes to the carpet on the floor. Taking a deep breath, he looked back up at me, but stayed silent. I nodded once and put down the picture because I figured he knew what I was getting at, but wasn't going to take it further than that. Swinging my hands to catch each other in front and behind me, I took a few steps and stopped myself right in front of him.

"Shuyin, promise me." I repeated what I wanted from him earlier, "Promise me you'll stay. Promise me this time will be different. I want you to tell me we'll all make it through just fine this time. Shuyin, we've all been through enough and I don't think I want to 'get through it' again. I won't!"

Taking another breath and closing his eyes, he replied, "Nobody knows who I really am. Maybe they just don't give a damn."

I could feel the tears welling up, but I knew what he did was the right thing, "But if I ever need someone to come along, I know you will comfort me and keep me strong."

"You're not alone, Rikku." He said, "You and Kirin served a crucial part in our team and we count on you for it, even if we don't even realize that we do."

"And you'll be here for me if I need it?" I asked, hoping he'd just make that promise.

Instead, he only took the few steps left and pulled me into his arms. It wasn't what I wanted. It wasn't what Kirin had wanted from him, either. I knew that much, but just like he did to her, he wasn't going to be there in the end. But, lucky me, he did do one thing.

"Spira's at the cusp of a new cycle. It was lost at sea for generations, but it's finally close to shore. If we just strain at the oars, we'll make it and reach our new destiny."

I admit I really didn't get him, but some part of me did, and it told me it was enough. No, I still didn't get him to tell me it was all going to be okay. But what I did get was that he was thinking about a "new destiny" and that meant he wasn't planning on leaving. True to his word, he was there for me to keep me strong.

After a while, he let go of me and I wiped the stray tears from my eyes. He made sure to check if I was alright, the big dummy, but we eventually got the mood light again. I wanted to check out everything, sit in every chair or things that looked like they were chairs before Shuyin told me they weren't, and take in this comfortable place like it was mine. Really, I think I was only doing that because, new destiny or not, Sin was scary the first time and now it was worse. As long as he wasn't telling me time was up, I was going to soak up every second I could. Still, I was also really jumpy the whole time and ended up sitting in all the places that looked like they were for sitting in no time. I had no other places to check out on that floor so my next stop was upstairs. Just then, Shuyin said he saw something and went to go investigate, telling me he'd meet me up soon.

Once I was upstairs, I realized the first room was Kirin's bedroom and just had to take a look. There were lots of posters all over the walls and all of them were cute. She was my kind of girl. She also had pictures everywhere of her and the other guys from Shuyin's time. I took to peeking at all of them, eventually getting to one of Kirin, herself, but obviously taken when she wasn't ready. It had to have been a prank, but it meant a lot to her. I remembered that that was what I wanted to take from all of this. I didn't want to remember if we beat Sin again. I didn't care. I wanted to remember Paine tickling me and Shuyin backing off when she gave him a look. I wanted to remember scaring Yunie with the new SRP. I wanted to remember the parts during all of this when we weren't about to die or ready to give up.

Picking up the picture, I whispered, "Kirin… we are a lot alike, aren't we?"

Putting it down, I noticed that it was a while now and Shuyin still hadn't come up. Going back downstairs, I called out for him, but didn't hear anything. I went all over the floor and he wasn't there. I went back upstairs and started looking through all the rooms, but I couldn't find him.

"Shuyin?" I shouted, my voice more shaky than I needed it to be.

I still didn't get any answer so I went further upstairs, hoping he just thought I went up already, but he wasn't on that floor either. I went back down past the lower level and checked both sub-floors. I rechecked the floors and still nothing.

"Shuyin!" I yelled, getting more worried and frantic.

I started wondering if he might have been hiding in places and went to check in closets and bathrooms. I checked under the beds and behind the couches. It got to the point where I was looking for him in cupboards and drawers, but he wasn't anywhere. He was gone.

"Shuyin."

**Author's Note:** That bloke just can't stay put, can he? Where do you suppose he went running off to this time? What is he planning? Was rebuilding Zanarkand really the answer or was it the perfect distraction for the others to make his escape? Does he plan to take on Sin by himself?


	44. Zanarkand's Prime II

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** To Oblivia: Thanks for the review and yes, I also realised how long it had been since my last update. Apologies all around for that. xD However, I would never abandon this fanfiction as it has, in essence, become a continuity on its own for me. Originally, this fiction was to be a way of finishing off the Shuyin story I started in Eternal Love with a complete ending. However, this timeline has expanded into what came to be known as the Exigo Timeline and I do want to see it through to the end. Hope you enjoy the rest of this one, though!

So last time Shuyin rebuilt Zanarkand from the ground up only to take off on his own. So far, we don't know where he's gone or why. Before we get on that, though, let's take a look at how the others are faring in this resurrected city. For Yuna, this was what she's wanted since she met Tidus. However, before we forget, this Zanarkand is not his. This Zanarkand is Shuyin's, the true Zanarkand from one thousand years ago. How will it differ from the one Tidus knows? Will this affect their experience in any way?

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 43: Zanarkand's Prime II**

Yuna

_ "Right, now we still have some time left before Sin arrives. I know how much this city means to some of you so why not take advantage of it while we can. Let's split up and rendezvous back at the entrance in say an hour?"_

His words were meant for the group, but I couldn't help but feel they were spoken specifically for me. This city was everything I had wanted since I met him. It was where he promised to bring me before he disappeared. It wasn't how I thought the promise would be fulfilled, but it was amazing that it was.

When Shuyin walked into the ruins of Zanarkand and said those words to the pyreflies, none of us could have imagined what would come of it. I was astounded that they listened to him, began moving towards him, even though we knew all too well what power he had over them. When the first pieces of the city resurrected, I turned to him and he turned to me. He could take me to his city now. After over two years of waiting, of losing him and giving up this dream, he had come back to me and now the man he was created from had brought his city back to me.

I remember feeling defeated those two years. We had won the battle. We had beaten the sin that drowned us for centuries, but I lost him and that meant we were defeated. We lost the Aeons, the magic, the hopes and dreams. Then, there was only more pain and suffering, even though we gave up so much. I felt suffocated by it all and it just kept sinking me deeper into the darkness. Now, Zanarkand itself was returned to Spira; I felt we really could win this time. My hopes had returned to me as they all had. We weren't losing anymore.

"Can it last?" I whispered to myself as I watched Shuyin and Rikku take off.

"Don't know what he's on about, but I can't really vacation while we've still got work to do." Paine said, tossing the book she had in her hands back into Yu Yevon's office, "I'll be at the entrance to the city. When it's time, I'll contact you. See you later."

"Paine…" I started, reaching out because it seemed like she was pulling away again.

"C'mon, let me show you around." He said, taking me away.

"What about Paine?"

"I think she's actually got something else on her mind." He told me, "I don't think she'd be too happy playing third wheel to us, right?"

I smiled at him. He was right. Besides, I had always wanted this and we finally had the chance. I went with him and we explored this marvelous city together. He took me to all sorts of places, my beautiful living dream, and I reveled in it. I saw so many strange and new things, things I had only encountered in Luca during my pilgrimage, things I briefly glanced from the Machine Faction while sphere hunting, but nothing I saw then could compare to all that I could see now. Every building had functions and each function built to play its part together with the land under it. Still, what impressed me most of all was the stories behind each of them. I followed him as he spoke of them, of all his adventures in Dream Zanarkand as he grew. At last, I knew him in all manners just as he knew me. As he had been brought from his world to mine by Sin, so had I finally been sent to his.

Eventually, the tales he told led us to the Zanarkand Stadium where he used to excel at blitzball, beating the other teams within the dream. We walked by the Hall of Champions and I was able to see all the victories the Abes had, except that they were all of Shuyin's victories with them. This wasn't the dream that he had come from, but the real Zanarkand that was destroyed so many years ago. Despite it, we were able to pretend that this was his Zanarkand and he told me the truth behind it, that for him, it was only his second year with the Abes that night when he was brought to me. Before that was a gap, a void left by Sir Jecht when he disappeared ten years before. He reminisced about those years in front of one of Sir Jecht's victory portraits, recounting how bitter he had been that everybody continued to speak of him after he abandoned him and his mother for so many years.

All this time with him and to finally be in Zanarkand to marvel at it at his side, it was more than I could ever ask for. After all we'd been through, this was the greatest gift anyone could be given. And it wasn't enough.

"This isn't your Zanarkand, is it?" I found myself saying, my eyes staring into one of the portraits of Shuyin and his Abes team.

"No, this is his." He told me, walking up behind me to put his arms around my shoulders.

"I keep forgetting that. I keep forgetting that your Zanarkand was never really real. You were never really real." I said, feeling my voice crumbling.

"Yuna?"

"The fayth, they brought you back to me. But they never said. They never promised it would last." I could barely get all the words out as the tears came.

I felt him, his arms tightening around me as if that would help. Taking my shoulders in his hands, he turned me around so he could look into my eyes. The hurt I saw in them made me regret what I had just said, but I couldn't help myself. These were valid fears, fears that were too close to truth now that we were confronted with the threat of another Sin. Last time there was a Sin in Spira's skies, it took so much from us, too much. It took him.

"What if it's like that again?" I asked, not sure if I was even asking him.

"I won't let it." He stated confidently.

"How can you say that? How can you make this promise when you couldn't hold up on it last time?"

"Yuna."

"Honestly! Last time we faced Sin, we gave up everything to stop it. My Aeons, all of them were taken. Sir Auron died. And you… And you…" I struggled to say.

"… made you a promise that I'd save you." He said, finishing my sentence, "I never promised you back then that I'd be safe after saving you, Yuna. I didn't even give it a thought. All I cared about then was protecting you and that's all I care about now, too."

"But then!"

"And to care about Yuna now means I have to live through this. Yuna, I swear I won't leave you this time."

The tears wouldn't stop pooling from my eyes just like the fears wouldn't stop consuming my mind. I wanted to believe his wonderful words, but it wasn't going to stop them from enveloping my thoughts. It was impossible to promise that. None of us could even guarantee that we'd make it through. This time, Sin wasn't just another Sin for another summoner on another pilgrimage. The days of pilgrimages had long since passed and this Sin was much more powerful with a conscious Yu Yevon inside of it to make sure it was well protected. How could I conceive of pulling through without any losses?

"Did I ever tell you, I didn't win my first games. I sucked." He started to say, breaking me out of those thoughts.

He was standing before yet another portrait of Shuyin and the Abes celebrating another of their victories. Taking a deep breath, he took a step to his left to look at just the Shuyin part of it. Turning away from it, he walked back over to me.

"I hated dad so much and I wanted to pay him back, but I couldn't. That first year, I was still learning the ropes. I didn't even figure out his special until the boat to Luca. Not that I couldn't, you know, but I just didn't yet and after Sin took me to Spira, Luca was my first chance."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Yuna, we've been through a lot now. Back then, yea, maybe that's all we could come up with, sacrifice all your Aeons, make you cry. But now, you've managed to do so much without somebody dying in the process, why can't we beat Sin without me leaving this time? I say bring it on! We can score a clean win and send Yu Yevon packing!"

"I just don't know."

"Then, it's a good thing you've got me here. Just because I had to go before doesn't mean I have to go each time. I lost those first games, but after that, I was unstoppable. That's what we can be now: Unstoppable!"

I knew his intentions were good and we did need confidence for the coming battle, but that's all those words were, confidence boosters. It was still too foggy to see what lay ahead in the future. Maybe we would all make it out, but maybe not even a single one of us would. This battle was bigger than anything we'd encountered before, big enough that Shuyin thought to recreate Zanarkand to face it. If Shuyin needed to smother his doubts, just how difficult was the road ahead? No, forget how difficult the road is. Forget the possibilities of coming to a bad end. This was my story and I said it'd be a good one. I planned to keep that promise.

"I won't lose you." I said to him, placing my hands upon his chest and gazing up into his eyes.

"And I won't leave you." He told me, gazing lovingly back before moving closer.

His lips pressed against mine and I felt my fears melting away. The warmth he provided filled my heart with love that drowned away the doubt and despair. Though it was still no guarantee, it was enough. I knew I shouldn't ask for more and if I wanted to make sure he wouldn't leave, I needed to take care of it myself. There was no way I'd spend another two years away from him, away from this wonderful feeling.

"C'mon, let me show you around a real stadium." He said later, taking my hand and having me run with him to the Sphere Pool.

His stadium was nothing like the one I knew in Luca. This one was tremendous. There had to have been seats for billions and there were decks and lower level seating and rooftop seating and just about anywhere you could imagine a chair, there was one. The balconies were also remarkably structured and emanated strength, durability, and safety. Everything was mechanised and automated. As he would tell me, there was even a machina to hold a drink and lift it for you if you wanted it. However, there was no Sphere Pool. In the center where one would usually be, there was nothing but a vacant space.

"Um, shouldn't there be a big ball of water over there?" I asked, pointing.

"How do you know we don't use this place for other stuff, too, like Luca does?"

"Because you took me to the Grand Hall already." I answered with a smile.

Nodding to me, he went over to an open room with several monitors and controls of some kind. Looking over them, he began pressing a few switches and pushing a few buttons. Suddenly, the walls turned into machina and I could hear a strange sound coming from the empty space at the center of the arena. As the sound grew louder, I started to see blue streaks of what I could only guess had to be lightning. Little by little, the streaks expanded and wavered and I was finally able to see that they were not lightning but globs of water within lightning. It was an amazing sight to be sure, but I couldn't understand any of it. Within seconds, the globs of water became an entire Sphere Pool, the remaining energy cast off into us, causing a current of wind.

"What was that?"

"That's our Sphere Pool." He said, looking out into the water.

I could tell he was remembering the life he lost when Sin brought him to Spira. He had lived there his whole life and then he was taken from it into such a backwards world. It must have been hard for him the first few days. It must have been hard for both of them. The Spira I was born to was nothing compared to the Zanarkand that was.

"Do you regret leaving this city?" I asked him.

"I did. When I first got to Spira, I wanted so bad to go back. Then, I met you." He said, turning to me, "When I tried to rescue you down in Besaid Temple, I started to let go of Zanarkand. After a while, Spira felt like my home. You were in it. Zanarkand became the place I wanted to show you because it was my past."

"Your past looks a lot better than our future."

"No, this place is long gone. Besides, it stopped feeling like a home a long time ago when my mom died. I didn't have any real family until I came along on your pilgrimage, Yuna. Spira's my home and I'm going to protect it for our future."

Tears flooded my eyes when I heard him say that even though I knew he would. I guess there was always a part of me that wondered if he really accepted his fate, being stranded in a world so dwarfed by his own. To hear him say what he did, it only added to the confidence I regained just before.

"Hey, let me show you something." He said abruptly.

We left the stadium after he turned off the Sphere Pool, another feat I found amazing. Just as quickly as the waters had appeared, they flickered out of existence and the arena was empty again. Once we were outside, he took me in the direction of the harbour. The journey was quite short. The stadium itself had been located near the shore, after all. However, I still didn't know why he had wanted to go to the harbour.

"Bet you've never seen a house in a boat." He told me once we were there.

If he hadn't said it, I would have never guessed, but all the boats in the water were actually houses. Looking into one of the windows, I found a complete dining hall and full kitchen, the likes of Home. Nothing on Besaid looked as fancy, but by his words, this was modest housing. He pulled me along to one of the boats and opened the door. This one was caked in dust. At first, I wasn't sure why he had taken me here, but he acted as surprised about the appearance of the house as I was.

"This isn't right. This is my house. Why is it so rundown?"

Once I got my head around it, I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "Remember, this isn't really your house. This would really be Shuyin's house. Maybe this is how he kept it."

"Yuna, does it look like anyone's lived here for a while?" He asked.

"Well, to be fair, none of these houses have been lived in for a long time."

"Huh, but it looks like everything that should be here is."

"What do you mean?"

He handed me a picture frame he had dusted off, "My mother and me."

We browsed the house from top to bottom, while he told me about everything and all the little stories that happened in each corner. It would have been better if it didn't look abandoned like it did, but hearing about his history made up for it. It was midway through the upper level that he picked up one last picture frame and furrowed his eyebrows. Showing me the picture, he would tell me that every one of them only showed him when he was a child, before his parents' death. It was confusing to him why, though it would seem that Shuyin abandoned the home after losing his parents whereas he stayed, probably because of Sir Auron. After we finished upstairs, we slowly made our way back down. Our time was almost up and we didn't want to keep disturbing a house that hadn't been lived in for relatively a decade.

Just before I reached the bottom step, the door flung open and, standing there gasping to catch her breath was my cousin. She struggled to stay on her feet and I could tell she'd been running some distance now. Rushing over to her, I held her steady and rubbed her back to help her calm down. She was drenched in cold sweat and looked completely unnerved, but she was too preoccupied with catching her breath to explain. Ten or so minutes later, she'd finally calmed enough, taking in one last deep breath. Then, she grabbed me by the shoulders and looked at me with so much worry in her eyes. It almost felt like two years ago when we first reached Zanarkand and she was terrified I wouldn't make it. I looked back at her and reassured her just as I did back then, but this time she had more on her mind. Trembling, she took in one more quick gulp of air.

"Yunie! He's gone! Shuyin's gone!"

**Author's Note:** Poor Yuna, she's been through a lot. At long last, she's been given a small gift to help her along, but is it really enough?

So the end takes us back to last chapter where Shuyin had gone missing. Next chapter will show just where he went off to and why. ^_~ Til then!

PS: Eternal Love anniversary update! w00t! =p


	45. Heretic At The Helm

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Silly Shuyin, where's he gone off to now? I'm sure that's what Yuna and the gang are thinking to themselves right now. Why would their teammate keep running off like that? Well, enough about them.

This chapter will show exactly what Shuyin has on his mind and where this will lead. Are you curious? Well then, read and find out! What are you doing reading this nonsense up here for? =p

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 44: Heretic at the Helm**

Shuyin

Spira's new destiny, it was almost upon us. Soon after our talk, Rikku decided she wanted to explore the second floor of Kirin's house. It allowed me the moment I had been waiting for. While recreating Zanarkand with my people's pyreflies did have coercing Yu Yevon into action, there was much more left to do than simply wait for him to arrive. That was where I was off to, a direction I hoped would be the last time I'd be facing for a while. I was, once again, on my way to Bevelle. This time would be no different than before. There would be soldiers, there would be a struggle, and there would be a shallow victory.

"Freeze!" One of the swarm of Bevelle guards said as they surrounded me.

This one seemed to be their captain, though his orders came from a superior, as well. I took my eyes from one guard to the next then set my eyes on the weapons they held. My memory of them had not faded. They were still the same foul machinations that had taken my life centuries ago. I had feared them then, feared what they could take from me. I had nothing left to take this time. I had only my hatred of them and I was ready to act.

"Are you deaf? I said freeze! Hands to the sky!" He growled again, cocking his weapon.

"No, I can hear you just fine." I said, my hand brushing the hilt of my sword, "So believe me when I tell you, 'you'll want to put those things down.'"

"Target is not cooperating. Do we have a kill order?"

I turned my head to the left and then to the right, half searching for who this moron might be asking his questions, but also…

"Thought it was you. You may have fooled Gippal and Paine, even Nooj, but you won't fool me." A very familiar voice exclaimed from afar.

Taking my eyes to the approaching Praetor of New Yevon, I lifted my hands and clapped, "And I applaud that. Still, I'm in a bit of a rush. Need to be getting aboard Vegnagun now so if you wouldn't mind…"

"Yes, you have a kill order." He answered the captain.

Locking onto me with their guns, they open fired. It was amusing that Baralai thought it would do anything to his favour. Unsheathing my sword as the bullets came, I deflected them all, making sure not to rebound them into any of them, though. I wasn't trying to be that trespasser this time. However, yes, I was looking to reclaim the machina beast Vegnagun. As I had stated earlier, raising Zanarkand from its ruins only helped draw Sin to a prepared location. That did nothing to properly equip ourselves for this battle. This Sin wasn't like before and, from the stories Rikku had told me of their encounter, even such a juvenile Sin was too dangerous to be trifled with. This time our enemy was at its strongest and still growing stronger. This time the Sin we faced was the one Yu Yevon had warned me about so many years ago, a Sin that was allowed to grow past a ten year period. The pilgrimages and Final Aeons prevented it from developing. Each time they defeated it, the parasite Yu Yevon had to rebuild it from the new Final Aeon core. That cycle maintained that it would never be powerful enough to pose a threat to Spira as a whole. Now, that madman wanted to obliterate this planet. He wanted his Sin to become feral and crumble our world into dust. I couldn't allow that to happen.

Once all their rounds were littering the grounds and they were all busy reloading, I took the opportunity to advance. Baralai and the captain of the guard took to the defensive, the Praetor arming himself with his staff while the captain unsheathed his rapier.

"You know that'll only get you both killed, right?" I stated, lifting my sword up and leaning it against my shoulder.

"You're not regaining control of Vegnagun." Baralai growled, getting into position.

"I only intend to borrow it for a while."

"The only thing intended here is that you're leaving Bevelle in pieces."

"Well, you do have a point, and I believe your machina will fulfill that intention." I said, sheathing my weapon.

Without another word, he rushed me, sweeping at my legs with his staff before spinning around and going for another swing at neck level. It was easy enough to back away from his sweep and lean back to dodge the follow-up attack, but he didn't seem to notice how little I was trying. After missing, he spun his staff into a different position and lunged, jabbing forward with the staff. I easily dodged to my right as he pulled his weapon back and went for an overhead swing. Having grown bored of the bout, I caught his attack and pulled, forcing him forward in time to catch my elbow with his chin. This sent him back a few steps and left his staff in my care. I immediately discarded it and got into my own attack position, signaling for him to make another advance.

And he did, "You know, I think I should take it back. Foolish to trust me, maybe, but none of those three had stooped to trying to fight me as a human, even when I was just a human."

"You left me with little choice." He growled, throwing a right hook.

"Doesn't mean you make the stupid choice. You're a leader now, good Praetor. It's about time you take responsibility for your charges."

My words only angered him as he sent another volley of fists my way. One straight punch came at me far too slowly and I grabbed it and flipped him to the ground. He rolled away and came at me again, this time faking a low kick and moving into a spinning heel kick once I moved to dodge it. Ducking it all the same, I landed a stiff palm against his back after he landed from the kick, which sent him tumbling forward.

"You'd think that as close as you all are, you'd have enough faith in your fellow Crimson Squad members to trust their judgement." I told him once he stood back up.

"I don't know what you said to them or how you tricked them into believing you, but I know what you are, what you've done."

"You think you know more than Nooj? You remember the good Mevyn, yes? He was the vessel I occupied for two years. I shot you with his gun."

Balling up a fist in rage, he came at me again, leaping to my left and attempting an axe kick to my shoulder. Rounding behind where his attack would land him, it was a simple task catching his shoulders and pulling him down to the ground. I got one arm around his neck and lifted, placing him in a headlock.

"And now you'd be dead. As I said, you're a leader now. You can't afford to die like this, against someone insignificant. Spira relies on you to bring it back to order. In the future, you'll need to think through you actions and make your decisions with caution. That move you just tried on me would never have worked. You left yourself wide open for counters." I said, letting him go.

"Is this what you told the others, too? You beat them in battle and then figured we'd be more useful to you alive so you deceived us into believing you are on our side?"

"What makes you think I find you useful?"

This caused him to lunge for me again, but when I tried to catch him, he surprised me and rolled under to his weapon behind me. Reclaiming it, he quickly spun it above his head, the staff extending as he did to send the rotating disc blades at its ends into me. Smiling to myself, I took the opportunity to practice my fancier maneuvers and rolled under the first volley. The second came in low so I cartwheeled against it, one of my hands landing just before reached and my other landing just after it passed, letting me lift the hand it was about to cut and getting back to my feet. The next one came at my middle so I flipped back, letting it pass harmlessly over me. Each time I dodged, I was also closing the gap between us. By the next volley I was able to grab the staff and land a high kick to the side of Baralai's skull, sending him flipping over his staff and onto the ground while I still held it in my hands. Repositioning the other end of it, I brought the sharp disc over his throat and held.

"That makes two deaths. Want to go for a third?" I asked, pulling the weapon away and tossing it to the side again.

"Why?"

"Baralai, I was never your enemy. Even when I was completely mad, I had no intention of antagonizing anyone. Granted, I did want to destroy this planet, but I was insane. I had it in my head that I was helping, not harming."

"We're not going to let you get to Vegnagun." He said lowly.

"You're mistaken. Why don't you think we've been interrupted at all since the start of this fight?" I stated.

To this, Baralai began looking around and noticed how all of his guards were standing idly by while he was taking such a beating. Walking to one of them, he began clicking his fingers at him, trying to rouse him from his trance.

"What did you do to them?"

"Oh, you should know that answer already… so, um, be a dear and lead the way." I said, gesturing for him to take me to Vegnagun of his own free will.

"That's not going to happen."

Taking a breath, I shrugged, "Can't say I didn't give you the choice."

With that, pyreflies erupted from my person and surrounded him, circling and ensnaring him. I had damaged him psychologically when I possessed him the last time. I wasn't about to do that again. However, that didn't mean I couldn't keep him occupied with my pyreflies. While he busied himself with swatting them, I took my leave and made my way towards the temple.

"You won't find it there!" I heard Baralai shout, stopping me.

Releasing him from my pyreflies, I recalled them and turned my head to look at him, but didn't bother to turn all the way around. He seemed at odds with himself. I knew he still didn't trust me and he still held thoughts that I would only use the machina to destroy Spira myself, but he began walking towards me with a different air about him.

"We moved it after Via Infinito exploded."

"I see that reconstruction is already underway." I said, noting how most of the area had been rebuilt.

"It is Via Infinito. It would be too dangerous to keep it open to the surface." He explained.

"Where is Vegnagun?"

He sighed, "Being purified."

"Via Purifico."

"It's been renovated, too. Be careful."

"I always am." I told him, "I promise you I'm not the Shuyin that possessed you and wanted to use this monster to destroy."

"Destroy us or save us, I don't care. Either way, I can't stop you."

I nodded, "You're going to be a strong leader. Don't let it go to your head."

With that said, I moved on and headed in the direction of Bevelle's highest security dungeon, the Via Purifico. I didn't know if this was a good idea, given that the Bevelle Underground was specifically designed to house the machina, while everything I knew about the Via Purifico told me it was meant only for heretics to Yevon, humans and not hulking masses of volatile metal.

"Sir!" One of the guards said from behind me.

After I heard the loading of one of their guns, Baralai placed a hand over the weapon to stop him, saying, "Contact Mevyn Nooj and Gippal."

Turning my head a little bit back to them, I smiled to myself and proceeded forth. The road to the dungeon was easy, all of the guards having been called off by their leader. It was also a simple task prying open the gates with my pyreflies. Via Purifico's main entrance had been sealed recently, no doubt after they placed Vegnagun inside. The layout of it was the same as the last time I had visited while occupying Nooj's body. In my "quest" to uncover Spira's past, I had sought the secrets hiding here, where the undesirable aspects of Yevon's Spira were disposed of. I remember reprimanding the old Yevonites for allowing such an archaic dungeon to continue to exist. It was quite a show, but I had only come here to keep up appearances. The true secrets of Spira were rotting in the Via Infinito, one of which had erupted from it recently. Though I hadn't cared to admit it at the time, the monster the shadow had concocted was what I had originally planned for the chasm, if I needed it. There was darkness hidden within that had been growing more violent since the Machina War.

My thoughts trailed off when I arrived at the first corridor. Entrants of this area usually met their end. The machina here were designed to be triggered no matter who wanted to progress, unleashing any number of Bevelle's captured fiends. As such, when I attempted to access the lift down, I was met with the howls of several Precepts Guards.

"Oh, except you boys aren't just any old Precepts Guards, are you? No, I sense something running deeper. Not guards, but masters." I said to them, my pyreflies having felt the additional power surging through them.

As I predicted, each of them oversouled, changing form to become stronger Master of Precepts. These fiends were freed from their fear of Holy and were more difficult to predict with their attack patterns. The first stabbed down with its large pincer, a distraction as the one behind me cast Ultima at my feet. The spell struck hard, but the pyreflies I held within me were strong enough to absorb them. As soon as the spell cleared, two more cast Flare, rousing me into action. Dashing to the nearest one, I stabbed it in its tail with my sword, which caused it to lift it up, swinging me quickly enough so that the momentum let me launch myself up to its head and spin horizontally, slicing it clean off. As it fractured into pyreflies, the one beside it fired a Sonic Pulse from its mouth before whipping at me with its own tail. While mid-air, I blocked the pulse, the force of it blowing me back and allowing me not only to dodge the tail, but also to grab it. When I flailed it back down, I used it to lunge forth and run it through. With my sword embedded into it, I unloaded the energy my pyreflies had collected from the Ultima, bursting it into messy chunks. Two of the remaining three cast Requiem, a stronger version of Ultima that the former Maester Seymour had taken for an overdrive. Scattering my form into pyreflies, I reformed on top of the third, slicing down the length of its back to defeat it. Finally, before its body could melt away into the ether, I took hold of its pincers with my pyreflies and sent them into the last two, ending the battle.

I took the lift down two levels past the holding cells and reaching the pool. Before I could even look into the water, a Geosgaeno fiend rose up and tried to swallow me. Using my pyreflies to keep its mouth open, I walked into it and began carving. A few deep cuts later, it roared and bathed me in its scattering pyreflies then water when I fell through. There had to be hundreds of them swimming underneath, the combined effect of uniting pyreflies of all the victims of Yevon cast into the Via Purifico and a volatile world corrupting them further. As I made my way down, I found my route. There were several locked doors lying before me in the way. I'd be needing to break through, which would have been a simpler task, but I was caught in an underwater fog of war with each of the fiends barreling into me. A few of them were actually sub-species Georapella, and several had also oversouled. I had to use every available skill I knew in the water to dodge it all. Elemental spells exploded all around, lighting up the depths to give me a better look at their positions. Another Geosgaeno tried to eat me, but I had had one following behind, readying a Stone Punch. With a quick maneuver down, I made it connect with the one trying to eat me and it was turned to dust instead. Through the debris, a few Georapella were casting Holy, a power only available to these oversouled varieties, but actually a weakness to their weaker counterparts. As they were none the wiser, it was an easy task to herd some of them into the path of the spheres white magic. Suffice it to say, by the time I reached the first lock, my path was brilliantly lit by all their dissipating bodies and I had a Force Rain ready.

The power behind my strike actually blew straight through two of the doors, blowing apart any waiting fiends between them. With the direct route cleared, I was allowed to swim right on forward past the two doorways without having more fiends to deal with, though they were all at my heel. I turned the corner to find the third door, but the swarm of the fiends on the other side had become aware of my proximity and tackled through, surprising me. There were too many of them coming at once, however, and they found themselves stuck. Unfortunately, that also barred my path with something worse than a simple metal lock and there were still more of the fiends behind me. With no options left, they all began to swallow the water, the move draining the entire pool with so many of them drinking.

"Bad move." I said, allowing myself to split into pyreflies.

As the water drained, I let my pyreflies drain with them, a small portion going to each fiend. Now, I had control of them. I had them stop swallowing up the water so they could still move. Then, I ordered the Geosgaenos to KO Punch the wall, killing each of them that had blocked my way. Water poured back into the pool from where the fiends had dammed it and I freed myself from them, swimming the rest of the way to the surface.

"Thanks boys. Couldn't have done it without you." I told them once I was on dry land.

The rest of the way wasn't too difficult. There were a few small fiends, but it wasn't any trouble to evade their advances. I had even sheathed my sword during it. Eventually I was at the secret alcove, the place a regular heretic never saw. Taking the stairs down, I reached the new chambers of Vegnagun. It lay there cold and dead, though the devices keeping it alive were giving off an eerie tone that filled the area with an ominous din.

"So, we meet again. You failed to save her, my Lenne. I had believed you were my only hope in keeping her from Bevelle, but you were the thing that sent her to them. Then, you failed me again when I wanted to be rid of this world. You have much to atone for, my old friend." I said to it, despite knowing it was just a machine.

Upon noticing my intentions, Vegnagun stirred from its sleep, its blue eyes piercing into me as the machina inside it gave off the semblance that it was chuckling, pairing well with its monstrous visage. I walked the steps toward it and used my pyreflies to release it from its shackles. Baralai must have chained it in those apparatuses almost as a punishment for the machina, locking it away instead of just hiding it like they used to. This part of Via Purifico was under nothing. Above us was dirt, the empty grounds beside Bevelle that led to the Calm Lands. I could feel it, or rather, I couldn't feel the lives above me as there were only fiends.

"Must be destiny." I mumbled, Vegnagun agreeing with me with a grunt of steam from its vents.

My presence activated it and it lowered its head for me to board. Once I was on it, I felt its surfaces. It had been some time since I had any use for the beast. How odd it felt to be on the same thing I was originally to use to destroy this world. Now, Yu Yevon was the would-be destroyer and I was actually using this device of war to stop it. As if understanding the bizarre turn of events, it groaned, its console lighting up for me to proceed. I took my old seat upon its head and brushed my fingers against the keys.

"Time to play the requiem." I said to it, placing my hands on the keyboard.

At first, the melody flowing from my fingers sounded the same. Vegnagun began activating as it had in the Farplane, unfolding its legs and releasing its tail. Next, I altered the perilous tune I had used then with quickening notes aloft in the air. I didn't need it to walk out of here. This was the melody I had originally intended to play when I used it in the Bevelle Underground over a millennium ago. My pyreflies dug at the ceiling, forcing their way out into the light. Once I could see the surface, I had Vegnagun cast Flares at it, crumbling the rest away and creating a large enough hole to free it. I played the rest of the notes, the keyboard sinking as a new console appeared, the manual controls I would need to guide its movement. Back in the Farplane, I had only needed it to use its cannon. Now…

"Safeties disengage." I commanded, the beast shuddering at what I was about to attempt.

Its engines roared to life and it faced the exit I made for it. Its wings spread out and its legs reared back to let it assume a standing position. Flicking the last switches to set it in the proper position, I took the manual controls and set it off. As it rose upward, the fiends trapped within Bevelle evaporated, caught against Vegnagun's powerful shields.

"This is it." I muttered, as it shot out into the sunlight, "What's our goal?"

**Author's Note:** Betcha didn't see that one coming. ^_~ Yes, what Shuyin has done was what he had original set out to do with Vegnagun. You didn't think he'd fire the cannon in that small space, did you? Besides, Bevelle would have needed to get it out of the underground, too, if they planned to use it. I doubt they'd punch a hole into the Farplane each time, eh? =p

Originally, had Shuyin's plan succeeded, he would have launched Vegnagun up through the underground and blasted the city to itty bitty bits from the sky. Of course, this is only conjecture, but I always felt that with the differences in song from how we hear it in the Shuyin and Lenne Sphere and how we hear it in the Farplane, there was a difference in activation sequence. Yes, this new tune I wrote Shuyin to be playing is the completed version of what he would have been playing on that sphere.

Additionally, when I started getting more involved with X-2's storyline and characters all those long years ago, it occurred to me that if I were to do a story like this, what with having Shuyin back after all the trouble he's caused, it would be the perfect opportunity to mend the wounds he produced. The most personal of such wounds obviously falls to those he possessed and that's one of the reasons I've gone into detail on how affected characters have been coping. Shuyin's been getting closer and closer to Rikku and setting things right with Paine, but that left out both Nooj and Baralai. On Nooj, I felt his own personality made it much easier for him to move on from that episode and I imagine in two years, no matter how nutters, some truth must have been gleamed by the deathseeker. That's why I had him accept that Shuyin returned on their side much easier than either Paine or Gippal. However, on Baralai, he's always seemed more sensitive in my opinion so to consider what he must have felt being possessed, the only result I could surmise was that Baralai was deeply scarred by the experience. That was why the entire fanfiction, I'd had him distracted by on the other situations going around Spira, even having a chapter or two of blowing up the Via Infinito. xD This chapter was not only to further the march against Sin, but to heal Baralai as much as anyone could believe him to become, though it was also to further the next era of the story, which will be figuring in his growth as a leader, especially after a few more events occur. ^_^;;;

Anyway, where exactly am I taking this? What's Shuyin going to do with Vegnagun? Lastly, what are the others doing at this time? You can't believe they'd just wallow in their Shuyinlessness, right? However, Cid took the damaged Fahrenheit away to help others after dropping them in Zanarkand. They are without an airship. Also, what was it that Baralai wanted from Nooj and Gippal? All this and more on the next exciting super special awesome chapter of Spira: The Eternal Discord!


	46. The Consequences of Risk

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** So, what's our goal? Oh yea, Shuyin's got his weapon and he's on his way back. Yu Yevon won't know what hit him! ... Or will he? We still don't know anything about this new Sin and Vegnagun is only a machina. Who will come out on top? A more powerful and feral version of the thing that terrorised Spira for generations or the monstrous machine that nearly blew it all up?

This chapter will feature what happened to the gang after Shuyin took off. Also, what that paper was that had Lenne's handwriting on it. Any of you pay attention to that one? It's a very important piece of paper. ^_~

*while reading Oblivia's review* (~.~;;)... (;;^.^)... (^~^) *giggle* You'll see. =p

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 45: The Consequences of Risk**

Tidus

"Then, I went upstairs and he didn't follow. I thought it was weird that he still didn't come up after a while so I went down to check on him and he was gone." Rikku said.

She'd been telling us what happened up to the point where she found us. So far, the only thing I could make out of it was that Shuyin set up Zanarkand just to get us distracted. It looked that way, anyway. It was over an hour later and there was no sign of Sin popping up and Paine didn't even call us back yet. The only draw from that whole bring back Zanarkand plan was getting us all out of the way so he could run off. Of course, neither Yuna nor Rikku wanted to believe that. But, there was one thing all three of us agreed on.

"He's going for Vegnagun." Paine said when we boarded the airship.

It was only minutes after Rikku finished her story. Paine reported that there was seismic activity in D-North and on the outskirts of Bevelle. We rushed back to the entrance of Zanarkand, ready to board Cid's airship, but it turned out the old guy had other ideas. After we made that "landing" a la the first time I went to Bevelle, Cid took the damaged airship to clear civilians from the Calm Lands and surrounding areas near Zanarkand. As for us, he made a call to Brother and we had the good old Celsius back, completely repaired and ready to kick Sin all across Spira. It was actually from the Celsius' console that Paine got the readings about the tremors happening.

"Why would he?" Rikku asked, taking us back to the present and getting on with our discussion about Shuyin's plan.

"I thought Shuyin was done with using that awful machina." Yuna added.

"It's Vegnagun. We are dealing with the very same monster that terrorized Spira for one thousand years. He went back for his own terror, a weapon that could destroy a planet versus an equally devastating force." Paine suggested to us.

"But Vegnagun's no match for Sin." I responded cynically.

There was no way any machina could match up to Sin. Sin was designed to destroy machina, after all. The whole point to Sin was that Yu Yevon thought people abused machina so it was going to destroy any that got too powerful. Vegnagun is the epitome of powerful machina. Head to head, Sin would make a beeline for it and turn it into scrap metal.

"I don't think it's about being a match." She said, her voice monotonous like she was thinking it through while saying it, "He's looking for a way inside."

"What do you think he's going to do, Paine?" Yuna asked.

"Oh, Yunie, I think I should give this to you." Rikku interjected.

"What is it?" Yuna enquired when Rikku handed over an old piece of paper.

"I don't know, but Shuyin said it was in Lenne's handwriting. For a while, I kept thinking this was why he left."

Yuna looked over the paper before replying with, "I'm going to need some time to study it."

"It might be important." Rikku insisted, "Something tells me Shuyin planned to use it against Yu Yevon."

"Okay, Rikku, I'll get on this right now, but we should head for Bevelle if Shuyin's trying to get Vegnagun again." Yuna told her, heading off to the cabin with the paper.

"Got it, Yunie. Set a course for the Bevelle Temple!" The eager girl chirped, patting Brother on the shoulder.

"Rogerrrr! Setting now the courses for getting to Bevelle!"

"Well, now that that's settled, I really don't know what he's going to do." Paine admitted.

"Yea, you do." I said, "You know exactly what a guy like Shuyin would do. He's going to fire that thing at Sin and get himself killed when it doesn't work."

"You don't know that."

"No, I don't know what would happen, but I can take a guess and you made the same one. Shuyin's gonna go in guns blazing only to find out Yu Yevon was waiting for him to do that and then Sin's gonna do what it was meant for and that's destroying machina."

Rikku slipped in between us, "Are you two honestly underestimating him? I think we've seen enough of him to know he doesn't go in "guns blazing", silly head."

I sighed, "This isn't just any enemy now, Rikku. This is the guy that screwed him over way back and Shuyin already told us what happened that night, remember? He underestimated Yu Yevon. He just might do that again."

"I have to agree with him. Shuyin's not himself around his past. It's a scar. Those things don't leave you, even if you start being a manipulative bastard to everything else." Paine added to my theory.

"Guys, what would come out of him screwing up now? Besides, Vegnagun isn't just any machina. It could destroy the whole of Spira for crying out loud!" Rikku continued arguing.

"Only if you shoot the core." Paine corrected.

"And that was the core. We're not talking about a planet core this time, Rikku. Planet cores don't shoot back. We knew really well what Sin's capable of and that was a regular Sin. Remember what it almost did to us on the airship?" I suggested.

"This time, Sin's attack power is going to be worse tenfold." Paine grumbled, clenching a fist.

"Are we sure we know what we're getting into? We didn't really come up with a plan yet." I said in realization.

We really hadn't. So far, our plan was Shuyin bringing back Zanarkand so we knew where it would be and that already fell through because Shuyin really just wanted us out of the way so he could get his precious machina weapon. We didn't have any idea on what to do about Sin once it appeared. Last time, we just went in and nearly died. When it saw us getting closer, it immediately went for Tera Graviton, the attack I was reminding Rikku about. It was able to use a weaker Giga Graviton on us when we were up close and that took out whatever was left of the airship's weapons and almost knocked out its propulsion. This time, Sin was going to have much more than that in store. We needed a plan and fast.

"I guess all we really can do is try our best. Maybe try to dodge that Tera Graviton thing. That one was rough." Rikku said.

"Now there's a well-thought plan." Paine's sarcasm could cut steel.

"What else can we do? We don't even know what this Sin is capable of. All we have on it is that it's stronger."

"The problem is how much stronger, isn't it?" I mumbled, getting lost in my own thoughts.

The Sin we fought before was geared specifically to keep Spira's people stunted. It took out any advancement in technology. Bevelle's Yevon made it a crime to develop machina and set up the way to keep the cycle going by having a summoner use a Final Aeon on it. There were quite a few things wrong with our approach if we were going by "stronger". First, this Sin was made to take out the planet. No more kid gloves. That probably meant that, even with a Final Aeon, Sin wouldn't be beaten. Yevon and that whole period of time was just about dealing with machina and keeping the people under control, which was why the Al Bhed were shunned. This Sin and what Yu Yevon had in mind really didn't need any of Spira's people under control. Really, Yu Yevon was just going all out to blow it up so it didn't matter what the people were doing. Our thinking needed to change. I was sure we couldn't just hit it a few times and punch a hole into it this time. It wouldn't let us get that close. Yu Yevon would probably have remembered that getting inside Sin was how we managed to take it out. Although, at the same time, we didn't even have Aeons to sacrifice anymore. There weren't any left on Spira. Also, Yu Yevon wasn't just some mindless parasite, either. This time, he was himself, a fully aware and definitely strong unsent. He wouldn't have to fall for the same tricks like he did last time, being herded into the Aeons until there was nothing left, leaving him vulnerable.

"We-" I started to say.

"We can't think about this battle like the last time." Rikku interrupted, finishing what I was going to say for me.

"Right! I was just about to say th-"

"Good thing I've never dealt with it before. By the looks of what it used to be, I'd say we should take out the outer defences first." Paine suggested, also cutting me off.

"Been there, done that." I finally got out, "That's how we breached it last time. We took out the barrier protecting it by attacking the nodes over the fins, then we hit it hard and took out a sinspawn on its head that protected it. After that, we were able to blow open a hole and fly the whole airship inside."

"I stand corrected."

"Dr. P skipping out on a sarcasm moment? The world really is coming to an end!" Rikku joked, kneeling next to Paine.

"Minus-"

Rikku quickly put a finger up to her mouth and cut her off, "You know, you think it would help if we tried thinking about how it was like back then?"

"You mean the first Sin?" I asked her.

"No, I mean the people. Maybe the key to beating it isn't to beat Sin, but to beat Yu Yevon. If we could figure out just why he went all nuts and wanted to strip the world of its machina, maybe that will tell us how to beat him!"

"You're talking about relating the past to our present. There's no way to do that. I mean, besides Shuyin and this guy." Paine retorted, waving over at me.

Actually, what Rikku was saying started to make sense to me. From what I've been seeing, there were, at least, a few similarities we could draw from the two lifetimes. If we went by Shuyin and I being linked, then Yuna would match up with Lenne since they're both summoners and Shuyin kept mixing up Rikku with his Kirin so that would be that link.

"You know, Rikku might be onto something here."

"Except, Shuyin and I talked this part through. Shuyin's not him. I mean, even right now he's going after a machina and not sticking by his sword and who do we know who did that?" Rikku explained, looking at me when she finished.

"You mean, he's related to Chappu?"

Rikku would elabourate, "Part of him, at least. The thing he said about it was since he was never sent, only parts of him ever got recycled like the part where he went after Vegnagun and left his sword. That's just what Chappu did when he went to be a Crusader and left Brotherhood behind!"

"But didn't we always think he and I were the same?" I asked, confused, "I mean, I still am a dream of the fayth they made from him, aren't I?"

"Well, yea, I didn't really get that part when he was saying it, but it's as if the parts of him that did get to the Farplane when he died ended up mixing with Chappu and Chappu repeated history. Then, the fayth made you to fix that mistake so history wouldn't just repeat and it really didn't! What I'm saying is that maybe if we think about what they did wrong back then that let Yu Yevon win, we can stop that from happening again and beat him."

"Wow, that's fairly deep for you, isn't it, Rikku?" Paine finally chimed in, "Alright, then Shuyin and this guy, Yuna probably fits with Lenne, you're obviously Kirin, so what about the rest of it?"

"Wakka and Lulu have to be Rothel and Larea. Rothel was their team captain just like Wakka was the Aurochs and he loves Lulu just like Rothel and Larea were in love." Rikku suggested.

"But those two aren't in this. Lulu still needs to rest." I said.

"Just like how Larea ended up not being part of what was happening in the end."

"This theory is just a little too funky." I admitted, scratching the back of my head.

"You know, I think you just took it one too far. The part about figuring out what they did wrong and what we can do right sounds good. So, what did they do wrong to make the Age of Sin happen?" Paine said.

"The Machina War?" Rikku guessed.

"Makes sense." Paine returned, taking a moment to consider it.

After a while, with none of us coming up with anything good, Paine came in again, "Shuyin's awfully alone all the time, isn't he? Maybe that's what they did wrong. They weren't a strong unit."

"It does sound like that." Rikku gasped.

"He did like Chappu and went after a machina that ended up getting him killed. Lenne was killed with him and after that, Sin popped up, right? Well, we're all in it together this time. Does it really make a difference? That big of a difference?" I asked.

"Well, it wasn't as neat as that. Shuyin told me he was really out of it when he got to Vegnagun that night. All of his friends were killed when Bevelle attacked the stadium."

"So they were together and that just got them blown to bits? Wow, that's reassuring now that we're all together on this airship." Paine stated in conjecture.

"No, that's not what we're supposed to take from that." I slowly said, thinking back to everything that happened, "His spirit was broken. All of his pals gone in a flash? That's gotta take it out of you. Think about the enemies we had so far. Seymour? Areth? Evil shadowy Dark Shuyin? These guys were all there to mess with us, break out team up, make us lose hope? I'm willing to bet that's Yu Yevon's ploy. He wants us to be down so we won't put up a good fight."

"Smart thinking."

"Yea, that's a great idea!" Rikku chirped, "Okay, so then we just have to keep our spirits high!"

"Easier said than done." Paine replied, "We're still sitting ducks on this airship. What's stopping Sin from killing us off and leaving Shuyin broken again?"

"That's not gonna happen." I said.

"And you saying that's gonna make it so?"

"That's right."

"Fa'na tuusat."

"No we're not! We-" Rikku was about to say.

"He wants me to kill Yu Yevon!" Yuna suddenly shouted, coming back from the back and running towards us with that paper.

"Well, duh." Paine noted.

"No, I don't just mean defeat him and send him to the Farplane. I mean permanently! He wants me to take away his existence!" Yuna clarified.

All three of us gasped. Brother and Buddy were shocked by the announcement, too, since the entire Celsius suddenly jerked to the left. We were all caught by surprise with what Yuna said.

"No, that doesn't make any sense." I finally voiced, breaking the silence.

"That's what the Breaking is. Lenne figured out a way to destroy the composition of pyreflies. They completely shatter and the person's memory is lost forever." She explained.

"How? How could there be magic to do that?" Paine asked.

"It isn't really a spell. It's similar to how the Sending works. It's a manipulation technique. The Sending guides the pyreflies to leaving their bodies and moving on to the Farplane. The Breaking coerces them to shake until the energy inside them is excited too much and ruptures the skin. I think Lenne described the energy as what actually holds the memories in place. Once that's released, it will be scattered into the atmosphere and the memory won't be sustainable."

"But how do you know Shuyin wants you to do that?" Rikku interjected, running over to her cousin and kneeling in front of her and cupping her hands in her own, "I'm the one that gave you the paper, remember?"

Yuna nodded at the girl, "Yes, Rikku, you gave it to me, after Shuyin gave it back to you."

Seeing how we were all confused, she flipped the paper in her hand over and placed it directly under the light. At first, none of us saw anything, but Yuna kept it there. Suddenly, a pyrefly shot out of it and whizzed about us. The moment it passed into us, we knew what Yuna had seen. Shuyin had given her the instruction to use it on Yu Yevon when the time came. He wanted to eliminate the threat once and for all and what better way would there be than to destroy the very stuff that made him?

"So he knew what that was when I showed it to him." Rikku whispered.

"He probably thought it was our lucky day. I don't think he knew anything about it until you showed it to him." Yuna said to comfort her.

"So is he really going after Vegnagun?" Paine asked, walking over to Brother.

My eyes trailed after her, eventually seeing out into the HUD, which led me to say, "Oh yea, he's really going for it."

"What makes you say that?" Paine asked.

Rikku eventually saw, herself, and stood up in a daze, pointing it out. Outside, just a short distance from the Celsius, there was a black object flying in the sky. It had spider-like legs, coiled up into its chest and large moth wings that were made of a black energy. As it flew, its tail wavered in the air, tapping against an invisible force shield, which was the only way I even knew it was there.

The com abruptly came on and Shuyin's voice came through, "What's our goal?"

"This is it…" I uttered.

"But is it victory?" Paine added.

**Translations from Al Bhed:**

"**Fa'na tuusat." – **"We're doomed."

**Author's Note:** Will they win? How can they defeat Sin this time? Tidus, Rikku, and Paine were going on about linking the past and the present, but is that really it? So much theorising is happening amongst them, but is any of it going to play out?

One thing I can guarantee, the Breaking, is going to play a part. Still, that's only if they manage to defeat Yu Yevon because when else could they have the opportunity for Yuna to use it?

For those of you who also frequent the forum, yes, I still have every intention of having this be part of the Exigo timeline and so nothing will be changed from the RP's setting. That may just clue you lot in to how this will turn out. ^_~

Til next time!


	47. Sinfall II

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** If anyone has been missing battle from this fiction, now's your time. Enough planning and enough waiting. Sin cometh the end draws near. We know Shuyin went after Vegnagun. We know he intends for Yuna to use something called the Breaking. Now, without further ado, let's see what happens.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 46: Sinfall II**

Shuyin

The horizon was lit by the rising sun in the distance, the air fresh and cool with the morning breeze. It would have been almost silent if not for the roaring engines of Vegnagun blaring against our calm surroundings. I was nearly through checking the machina's function systems and operations core. The cannon was charged at thirty-five percent. The rest of the weapons systems were armed and ready. It had almost gotten to proper altitude and I could begin setting a course back to Zanarkand. Time was counting down to Sin's arrival and I knew it wouldn't be that much longer.

Once it had gotten high enough, I reset its wings and propulsion exhausts to fly it forward. All systems seemed to be working well, which meant it was time to ready the power core. Without the other machina maintaining Spira the way it had been in my time, using the power core would only drain the planet further. After Yu Yevon's stunt, Spira was already on the brink, but Vegnagun needed power to maintain itself and hope to put up a fight against Sin. I fiddled with the controls, my mind focusing on the many wailing Al Bhed I had felt perishing throughout the Age of Sin. Through their mind for mechanics, I found a way to use the power core to its fullest capacity without harming the planet too much. Once it was up, I waited the period for it to charge and then activated Vegnagun's strong defences. First were the moveable plates on its thick metal hide. The machina was designed to engage enemy forces at the heart of war. That equated to having auto-repairing armour plating, so long as it could keep the restoration modules running. The next step was to activate the nodes to raise up the shields and barriers in addition to boosting them with periodic Protect and Shield spells. Given how much more powerful this Sin was, I'd need every second of it just to stay on course. None of the standard weapons systems would be useful against it, I knew that much, but they would be a good distraction while the other defences bought me time.

As soon as I was done preparing, I began moving to my final destination. It was then, I noticed the other airship in the morning sky. The Gullwings' Celsius loomed in the distance, steadily approaching me as I was making my way back towards them. Smiling, I turned in my seat and opened a communications channel between our vessels. Another advantage to having a military vessel was the ability to transmit any signal to nearby vessels whether or not they want to receive it. There were other advantages, too, especially when dealing with a cargo ship such as the Celsius, but more on that later.

"About face, ladies and gents." I announced, "We've got minutes, if that."

"Shuyin, did you mean for me to use-" Yuna began to say.

"I'm thinking we're into 'if that'." Rikku interrupted.

Looking on the slopes of Mount Gagazet, I witnessed the start of a rockslide and just beyond that, a mass began to block out the sunlight. Within moments, the air compressed and exploded outward, sending strong currents against Vegnagun's hull. I didn't wait a second more. Going back to the controls, I set the engines into full and sped the rest of the way to Zanarkand.

"Shuyin, wait for us!" Paine ordered over the speaker, but I could care less.

The Celsius was unarmed for the most part and I knew it had no shields. If anything, that ship could only provide support and that would require Sin not to pay attention to it. For that to happen, it needed to be fixated on something else first. Vegnagun soared right above Zanarkand, just opposite the beast. The face-off was intense, you know, if either of us cared for such things. I was busy reconfiguring the machina back into attack mode. As for Sin, it sort of floated there, hanging with that vacant yet vile stare over the city.

"What's it waiting for?" Rikku asked over the coms.

"Maybe it's admiring the architecture." I mused.

"Well, it was an impressive redesign." My better responded.

"Or it could be mounting an offensive." Paine mumbled with sarcastic intent.

"How do you figure?"

Yuna would answer that for him, "Are all those things sinspawn?"

In the distance, hordes of creatures headed our way. The ones that couldn't fly on their own were carried. Every last one had come straight from Sin itself; I guess we got its attention. I knew the Celsius wasn't going to handle it well, but there was little I could do to really help them. Too many were in the air.

However, I was able to find out one thing, "They aren't all sinspawn. Some of them are fiends."

Not very useful, but at least we knew what we were up against. The dossier on Vegnagun was catching each of them, casting Libra and documenting all targets. What's more, every enemy it caught in Libra was automatically targeted by its weapon systems. All it was waiting on was my command to engage. As soon as the first rows slowed to get into position, I had Vegnagun fire its missiles. The collecting crowds made the effective range that much more worthwhile and the first wave was down within seconds. Unfortunately, the resulting cloud paved the way for the next waves to punch through without fail. Vegnagun's mechanical flaw made it unable to target anything it couldn't "see". It was more a long distance fighter and only had a few resources allotted for close quarter battle. Suddenly, energy beams shot out from the side, the power dispersing once they hit something in the cloud. Under it, a few fiends fell, exploding into pyreflies.

"Shuyin, keep firing!" Paine ordered.

"Roger, didn't know the Celsius had weapons."

"Only way to deal with pirates." Rikku suggested.

"In the sky?" I asked.

"Sure, why can't there be sky pirates?"

"Because you're lame enough." Paine answered.

"Hey! Meanie!"

"Apart from that, I'm fairly certain the original owners of that airship were part-time smugglers." I added, "Oh, and we should really be getting back to the task at hand."

With that, I fired a Lacrimosa at one of the sinspawn that had gotten too close to the Celsius' deck. They began firing the energy beams at more of the fiends, but they were getting closer. My missiles were even being counterattacked by some of the earlier waves that were close enough to begin using their acid bursts on them. I even had to have Vegnagun use its debilitating fire breath on some that got too close to the console. The Celsius wasn't doing much better. Despite how much attention I was giving to make sure nothing was going to be trouble for them, it only took attention away from protecting myself, which when I did, only allowed more swarms through to them.

"There's too many of them!" Buddy shouted through the coms.

"We are firing the lasers!" Brother screamed, almost sounding normal given the frantic tone everyone was undertaking.

Soon, our defences were breached and, on my end, an Aeshma fiend managed to land on Vegnagun's head. I was forced off the console, setting it on autopilot, and attack the demon personally. I launched myself at it, swiping it across the waist with my sword while moving behind it. Turning to see the resulting pyreflies, I realised it wasn't dying. An attempted Break spell cast my way was a further clue. Quickly, I ran and made another pass, this time jumping high to slice off its head. Unfortunately, as I looked back, it was still standing strong.

"So, that's your trick." I said, pointing the tip of my blade at it, "You don't actually take damage from things like my sword here, do you? Your physical form is out of sync with reality, isn't it? Clever little thing."

It growled at me, waving its large arms to cast Flare, but it was such a long latency period that I actually walked out of the spell's area of effect, using my pyreflies to snatch another Aeshma from the sky.

"Oops, not another one of you. I think this one's a junior." I corrected myself aloud, having used the pyreflies to scan the fiend, which told me it was the weaker Aka Manah.

Of course, from that fiend, I realised they were one in the same except that those that ascend to become Aeshma usually arose from vengeful Time Wizards, their reality altering magics eventually transferring to their fiend shells, accounting for how they can shift their existence from reality. It was a long-winded way of saying they were Aka Manah fiends that couldn't be attacked physically. Everything else was the same, which was good for me. With my pyreflies controlling it, I had the Aka Manah cast Flare on the Aeshma. As expected, the black magic worked and it grumbled at my success.

"You'll have to do better than that."

Why did I have to open my big mouth? Right after I said it, the fiend began its chanting and sigils appeared above and beneath us. It was the fiend's strongest attack, the Emblem of Thanatos. I figured if it was going to use it, I might as well have the Aka Manah use it, too. It was interesting to see the overlapping sigils, but the intense light that followed burned. I was fortunate to have my sword extended, which allowed me to absorb most of it, but despite being practically the same fiend, my Aka Manah was annihilated outright, while the Aeshma survived to send a Break my way. I dodged the stalagmite just before it appeared, but the awkward move caused me to trip on landing. In my position, I could see that some of the fiends and sinspawn weren't headed directly for us. Several of them were taking a route under us, most likely to ambush us from underneath. Big mistake. Evading a Flare from the Aeshma, I headed back for the console and had Vegnagun activate Memento Mori. From beneath us, its core node lit up and scanned all the enemies it could find. Once they were all marked, it irradiated them and burned the sky with their bodies. After their markers no longer displayed on Vegnagun's screen, I turned my attention back to the uninvited guest. The Aeshma hadn't moved since it landed, showing me how confident the wizard it was made from had been.

I nodded in agreement, "I can see that warriors and knights don't mean a thing to you. What you want is a duel of mystics, am I right? Very well."

Taking out my The End Garment Grid, I activated the Black Mage sphere. Dark light shone upon me as my clothes faded to black and my sword's glow dimmed. The darkness draped across me and reformed into a long coat. Runes scattered across my person, drifting slowly against the gray shirt I now wore. As the rest of my new attire formed, I saw the beginnings of another Flare lighting up under my black pants. I looked up at the demon and shook my head at it. With a lazy click of the fingers, I cast Dispel on it, fizzling out the sizzle of the spell before casting Ultima. It saw my draw and matched me, casting its own Ultima. Mine would take effect first, blasting the fiend with waves of powerful magic. Before its spell could hit, I changed back and absorbed it into my sword, as well, my sword vibrating in overload. After taking both an Ultima and an Emblem of Thanatos, the fiend was barely able to remain standing, but it was stubborn. It cast Silence on me, letting me know it was dazed from the damage. Since it was in such a state, I simply commanded Vegnagun to use its Redoubts and cast two Lacrimosa attacks, finishing it off.

I stood upon the head of my war machine as it continued to launch its missiles and fire its spells. It appeared that the numbers weren't going to be enough to stop us, but I knew that Yu Yevon's wouldn't be relying on such weak forces for the whole battle. A short distance away, I noticed the Celsius being invaded by a few of the sinspawn.

"Head on deck?" Rikku asked over the coms in a hasty voice.

"And fast!" Paine agreed.

"Live and let live!" Came the loud chant of my twin's… could it be counted as a war cry?

I waited for them to arrive on deck and watched their fight to see if they needed me. With an enemy like Sin looming before us, I wanted to keep Vegnagun poised. At first, it looked as if I'd have to intervene, but they were stronger than I had believed. Before long, the deck was clear, their lot looking across the gap at me as I continued to watch them. Another Memento Mori drove back most of the fiends. The Celsius' energy beams kept those that made it through at bay. It was time to make our way to Sin itself.

Pyreflies flew from my back to the controls. I had already primed the machina and it was only awaiting my final instruction. The pyreflies acted for me, triggering the remaining sequences to unleash Vegnagun's ultimate attack. Unlike the locked position and slow charge I had used in my tenure as evil unsent, this function was what I had originally intended to loose upon Bevelle over a thousand years ago.

"Now Vegnagun, Cae-" I started to exclaim, only to be stopped by our enemy.

Vegnagun shuddered, the tremors spreading to my form. Turning to the Celsius, I saw that they had felt it, too. Not only that, the fiends in the air had felt it, too, scrambling in a panic to return to the creature. One by one, they exploded into pyreflies and the shaking only worsened the more pyreflies Sin absorbed. What was worse, looking down below, I could see Zanarkand begin to warp, the tallest towers beginning to twist and bend towards the monstrous creature above. Another pulse shot out from the beast, pushing against both our vessels and slew the remaining sinspawn in the air. Vegnagun was well protected from the assault, but the shock caused its nodes to immediately cast Protect and Shell spells onto its shields and armour plating. The Celsius, on the other hand, was on full red alert. As I looked on, all of them on deck were clinging to its surface and the entire airship was creaking loudly.

"I think we're in trouble!" I heard Rikku's trembling voice say over the coms.

Looking at the city below, I saw that most of it had already shattered and crumbled back into the pyreflies I employed to make it. The loosest groupings were absorbed first, but soon, the city was returned to its current form, a desolate husk of its former glory. The only difference now was that the giant cloud of pyreflies that used to adorn the sky above it was now a part of Sin.

'Now, you will all die.' A voice echoed within my mind.

"Ah, so the crone announces itself." I said aloud, staring straight into Sin's eyes.

'If you care not for your own well being, will you not care about them, either?'

Taking my eyes back to the Celsius, I could see that its engines were buckling under the force of Sin's attack. From Rikku's tales, I had heard the Fahrenheit was able to weather the first Sin's Tera Graviton. This, on the other hand, was a new Sin and it was more powerful, which made its gravity-based magic much more potent. This sphere of intense gravity was the effect of Exa Graviton. Yu Yevon was using it just to absorb the pyreflies I'd left him. That had been Zanarkand's purpose, after all, but catching our vessels in its wake, that was a bonus.

Going back to the console, I had Vegnagun activate its nodes. Against its own programming to protect itself, I had it launch those nodes at the Celsius, effectively transferring its shielding and defensive barriers to the airship. As they were granted safety from Exa Graviton, Vegnagun began to succumb to it, its systems coming under heavy fire. The pressure of the powerful magic began crushing its operating mechanisms, but it had some fight left in it.

"Alright, let's try this again. Vegnagun! Caelum Denique!" I commanded, releasing its cannon from within.

Unlike in the Heart of the Farplane, the cannon wasn't going to have the opportunity to compact the energy it soaked over time. Caelum Denique was designed to be used in a dire situation, when any large counterattack could help turn the tide of war. There would be no time to wait for a perfect shot and no anchor to have it bide. Instead, Vegnagun would have to remain airborne and pull in as much power as it could within seconds. Normally, this would make the blast strong enough to render a machina city molten ash. Sin was no machina city, however, but luckily, I was no ordinary power source. I lifted my sword into the air and released the force I gathered within it. With both the energy collected from the massive Emblem of Thanatos and additional strength from the Aeshma's Ultima, Vegnagun had all the energy it needed, charging up a strike far more explosive than anything I had expected to use on Bevelle those many years ago. With a great howl, the cannon fired and struck Sin right in its skull. The damage rendered its face impossible to recognise, what with the gaping hole drawing much more attention. Exa Graviton's effect began to weaken, Vegnagun no longer feeling its effect. However, it wasn't finished, not by a long shot. Slowly, its face began to reform, the first of its eyes returning and glaring at me in the distance. Opening what had regrown of its mouth, it spat a storm directly in line with Vegnagun. The Final Judgement took a heavy toll on the behemoth and I could feel it failing. Many of its systems were no longer operational and the few that were, were struggling simply to keep it aloft.

"Alright, guess its showtime." I muttered, getting back into the console.

Taking it by the throttle and going against every program installed in its cortex, I steered Vegnagun forward into the heart of the storm. Lightning stung at its faltering plating and winds tore them off. The swirling gales cost me several legs and the Right Redoubt, but it wasn't going to be enough to stop this beast of war. As the last of its power died and its core failed at last, momentum was the only thing keeping it on course. I waited for my opportunity, the two monsters coming closer and closer together. Finally, Sin's reformed head roared back into life, ready to bite down on my vessel, and I leaped from it to safe ground. Vegnagun was destroyed, its pieces following the currents down into the hole Sin had sprung from. I could only guess it was headed back for the Farplane, another cycle completed. For a moment, I stood vigil over it, its destruction symbolizing my release from all the ills of the past.

Sin lurched having become aware of my presence, but that would not save it. Unsheathing my sword, I focused the remaining energies it had left and charged Force Rain through it. I gave the creature one final look, eye to eye, then I stabbed down into its hide, releasing the overdrive. It wasn't going to stop it, nothing could come that easily, but I felt satisfaction at causing it pain and, better yet, creating an entrance inside. Force Rain had torn through its skin all the way and created a deep enough wound that it wouldn't be able to close for a while. I stepped into it, dropping down the long chasm until I found myself in a strange reality, what would appear to be a nonsense world of coloured light. The first feet I walked evoked no answers. There was nothing in any direction but more light. If I hadn't been standing, I would never have guessed there was a surface beneath me. My next decision was an obvious one for me: Destroy it all. However, before I could lift my sword, a presence reverberated across my pyreflies, one I knew only too well.

"Game Over."

"Final Chapter."

**Author's Note:** BAM! Was that good for any of you? It was lots of fun writing it, I can tell you that. I had had this planned so long, but to have it all on paper, what a thrill it was. So, Vegnagun is gone. I wonder if any of the old forum goers ever visit, because I can recall a certain debate we had had regarding who would come out on top, Vegnagun or Sin, and I had been on the side of Vegnagun, not to say it would ever win, but not to underestimate it. In my honest opinion, if a machine could have a weapon powerful enough to raze an entire city or destroy the core of the world, it can't be too pitiful against something that can only level cities over decade-long romps. =p No, I believed it back then and I still believe it now, Vegnagun and any other machina out of the war stands no chance against Sin, not this exemplary form and not its original FFX form. However, Vegnagun did take eight to destroy, which was the same amount of people it took to defeat Sin. Regardless of how gameplay mechanics had it, that still accounts for something on a storytelling respect.

Apart from that, I enjoyed the attacks used this time. Exa Graviton was fun to think about. I had always wondered why Tera Graviton was supposedly better than Giga Graviton when it seemed too easy to dodge something as spread apart as Tera Graviton. Oh sure, it puts on a show, what with the exploding ground and shockwaves in the sky, but it only extends in a few linear streams. The other areas around it are completely safe and it was simply Cid's poor navigating that caused the Fahrenheit to fly directly into one of them. xD Giga Graviton was far more direct, though I believe it had far shorter a range and also a shorter duration. Therefore, I created Exa Graviton, an aura of gravity that crushes everything about it unless shielded. Speaking of which, did any notice how Shuyin was standing aboard an open cockpit, no shields left protecting Vegnagun, the machina actually falling to bits, and yet he was perfectly fine? No, it had nothing to do with having his unsent pyreflies with him. This was done to illustrate something that had inspired me to make Yu Yevon an enemy in the first place, when I was writing "The End of Zanarkand". If you ever scanned Shuyin in FFX-2, you'll find that he's immune to gravity spells. I found that odd, but then I thought on how Sin's power was all gravity spells. It felt right to make them enemies after that. I imagined Yu Yevon would fancy those types of spells most of all, which was how he drew all those wayward pyreflies to him to build the first Sin, after all. Final Judgement was just to make a point I made in that same chapter that Sin is feral and actually much stronger than Penance. =p

Caelum Denique was another favourite. I couldn't imagine how little sense it would make if the cannon sequence we saw in X-2 was how Shuyin planned to attack Bevelle during his life. It took forever to charge that thing to capacity and all he was fending off were eight people. Back in Bevelle, he was up against the machina army of Bevelle and I was sure, as I wrote in Eternal Love, that they would be back straight away once they knew an enemy had their strongest weapon. If eight people could stop Vegnagun from firing, how could anyone expect an advanced machina army not to? x)

Finally, as these next chapters are all battle intensive and, let's face it, one final arduous round, I've been working to finish it all so you won't have to wait so long for updates... which is why you've waited a bit longer than normal for this one. ^.^;; This final battle is three chapters long in classic Final Fantasy fashion excessively long sequences ;;;, including this one. Anyway, now that Shuyin's paved the way into Sin for the final confrontation, what's lying ahead? Find out next time, on Spira: The Eternal Discord, Chapter 47: "Final Chapter"

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*giggle* Sky pirates. *giggle*


	48. Final Chapter

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Let's have a short review of what happened and get right into it. Shuyin brought back Zanarkand to lure Yu Yevon out of hiding and to distract the gang so he could slip into Bevelle and steal back Vegnagun. Cid took the Fahrenheit to try and help the people of Spira since it's far too damaged to do battle with a super Sin. However, the Celsius was finally recommissioned. They did battle with the new Sin and it showed off some neat tricks like summoning forth an army of fiends and sinspawn. Shuyin's answer to that was to hit it with Caelum Denique or "Final Heaven" … actually "Heaven At Last: but Final Heaven sounds more fun ^o^ … then ram the machina into it. Vegnagun was destroyed, but Shuyin got in. That's good on him… but what about the rest of the team? xD

So in this chapter, we will get to that and finally start the big fight. As the title of the chapter implies, there's not much left to go.

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 47: "Final Chapter"**

Tidus

"Shuyin, have you gone mad? Stop!" Paine screamed into the comsphere.

It wasn't going to work; even I knew that. Shuyin had that Vegnagun thing head straight for Sin, the giant machina breaking into bits and pieces every inch of the way. The guy wasn't backing off and we should have guessed he wasn't thinking about coming out of this in one piece when he gave us the thing's shields. Vegnagun smacked right into Sin and it barely budged. The machina, on the other hand…

"We have to go now!" Yuna ordered, going over to Brother and Buddy once we were back inside.

"Fight the good fight again!" Brother said, actually making sense for once.

"Yunie, we've got trouble!" Rikku chimed in, running over to her to show her the overhead screen.

After that super mega Tera Graviton stopped and it spat out that big lightning-hurricane-tornado thing at Shuyin, Sin was staying put, but under it, there was a lot more activity. Instead of coming at us with hordes of fiends, Sin was dropping them down at the ground. From what I could see on the screens, they were curled up Adamantoises only much bigger, rounder, and had spines all over.

"Genbu fiends. Looks like he's taking a page out of Dark Shuyin's book." Paine said.

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"Dark Shuyin made that Byakko thing out of the legends of the four guardians, remember?"

Suffice it to say, we were all staring, but Paine quickly got us back to work, telling us to head back up top while ordering Brother to land. Rikku argued that Sin was more important, but Paine knew, as we all did, that those fiends were going to terrorize everyone on the ground. We had no choice.

"This is one of those times that sucks." Yuna voiced for the rest of us, "But Sin is good at that."

"Yuna, we have to go." Paine pressed.

"No, if we stop Sin, those fiends will go away. If we lose focus now, we may never have the chance to stop it and Spira will be gone."

"We can't just leave them down there. Who knows how much damage they could do while we're off dealing with Sin." I tried to explain.

"It doesn't matter. The planet's at stake now. We have to go." She said, cringing at how awful those words sounded.

"Yunie…" Rikku murmured, before nodding to herself and turning to us, "She's right. We have to fight Sin at all costs because if we don't…"

"Spira's a goner." I said, looking at Paine.

It was what we were really scared about and I could see it in her eyes. After Vegnagun exploded and Sin was still left standing, it was too easy to give into our fears that we'd be next. Fighting some nobody fiends down on the ground was a lot easier to handle than going into the fight none of us were sure we'd make out alive.

"But Yuna's right. This is it. No turning away now." I added, unsheathing Brotherhood and activating Caladbolg from it.

"And you kids don't have to worry about those fiends on the ground." A voice came on over the coms.

"Gippal?" Rikku questioned.

Suddenly, rockets shot up through the air into Sin's underbelly, stopping the flow of fiends from it. Turning back to the screen, we saw Gippal along with Nooj and Baralai, all armed and ready to face the enemies left in the Calm Lands.

"We've got the small fries. Now you go after the big bad!"

Nooj came on next, "Stand strong and vigilant. The Calm is going to continue. A promise is a promise."

"Are you sure you can handle all those fiends?" Paine asked them, though from what Yuna told me, I was sure she was talking only to Nooj.

"Get going, Paine. You've got your mission; we've got ours." Baralai came on, taking out his staff to slice into one of the fiends that had already landed.

"And don't you worry about Noojie, love. We're here to take good care of all of them." Leblanc added, coming on screen with her goons.

"We'll have this situation under wraps shortly." The really thin guy with the guns said.

"Bwahahaha, they're gonna run home to mommy when we're done with 'em!" The fat one added.

The rest of them made this really bizarre high-pitched squeaking sound and then all of them headed off into battle. Most of Leblanc's goons were thrown back right away, but those guys were pretty tenacious and went right back each time.

"Don't have too much fun without me, got it?" Gippal finally said, shutting off the link.

"Well, that settles it." I shrugged, walking over to them.

"Guess so." Paine's voice trailed, but then, "Let's end this."

"Right!" Yuna exclaimed, "To Sin!"

"Roger! Next stop, final destination!" Brother shouted, pushing forward and sending the Celsius straight for Sin.

As soon as we got in front of the thing, Buddy got the wheels ready to launch a couple of energy waves at it. With the shields Shuyin left us still protecting us from the gravity spell, we were totally fine hovering so close. We were so fine, in fact, that Brother's courage points got a major boost and he started yelling ridiculous threats over the external speaker… loudly… However, before he could actually launch any attacks from the airship, we heard a low grumble come from Sin.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Sin's moving!" Rikku squealed.

Paine immediately reacted for the rest of us, heading to Buddy's console and firing the weapons. The waves flew out of the spinning wheels, but they ended up fizzling out before they even got close to Sin. The data stream noted that with the heavy gravity outside the shield, the energy was actually crunched before it could make it all the way to the target. Wow, this was some attack. Then again, it did absorb the whole of Zanarkand so I guess we should've figured one airship wasn't going to put up much of a fight.

Then, Sin did something strange. Instead of counterattacking like it had done with the Crusaders, it just started to open its mouth. Brother was in a panic, thinking it was going to Giga Graviton us like it tried two years ago, but it was different this time; we all felt it. It was like Sin was inviting us back. For a while, all we did was stare into its gaping mouth. None of us could think of what we should do. If we went for it, there was every chance it was a trap. But it wasn't as if we could stay back. We needed to defeat Yu Yevon and we had to do it from inside Sin last time. Finally, as we were taking too long to decide, Paine knocked Brother out of his seat and took the reigns. Carefully, she began steering the airship into Sin, paying extra attention to the distance its sides were to the sides of Sin's mouth. We were going into the belly of the beast so there wasn't such a thing as being too cautious. It was hard not to feel dread.

"Did somebody hear that?" Rikku asked shakily.

And that didn't help. Even though none of us were going to admit it, we all heard what Rikku was talking about. There was a deep rumble as we entered Sin, but it wasn't just that. It almost sounded like someone cackling at us, and we all were thinking of the same person. Yu Yevon was challenging us. We were the ones that sent Sin packing last time. It stood to reason that Yu Yevon wanted to take us on again, to finish what he failed to do last time.

Shifting the Caladbolg in my hand, I exclaimed, "Full speed ahead!"

Paine turned back to me with a glint in her eyes, smiling, "Roger."

The rest of the way, we flew straight through, me waiting for the same cloud of empty space with the glyphs that we saw last time. We weren't new to it, this time. Well, okay, maybe Paine was, but the rest of us knew what to expect. Well, okay, Buddy and Brother were still with the ship last time, but Yuna and Rikku… We knew what we were getting into, alright? Because of that, I wasn't going to be wandering about like last time. To get to Yu Yevon, we needed to get to the mini-Zanarkand inside. Once we got to that massive spire in the heart of that Zanarkand, we'd be transported to the weird Macalania-ish forest that I saw after Operation Mi'ihen and crack those crystals to weaken the illusion. Then…

"What's that up ahead?" Paine suddenly added.

"Weapon!" Rikku blurted out, running into me when she did.

"Paine, stop!" Yuna screamed, but it was too late.

"We're going too fast for that!"

The airship slammed right into the giant fiend, the impact cracking the HUD and shorting the weapons circuitry. However, the fiend was completely destroyed, all of its pyreflies blocking our view of the outside. Buddy quickly ran a diagnostics of the ship's systems, but it was still flight worthy. Brother took back the controls as Paine unsheathed her sword, the look in her eyes telling of her concern. She knew, just as the rest of us were slowly figuring out, that we had arrived at our destination, even if that destination wasn't what we were anticipating.

Outside, a voice suddenly called out, "Took you guys long enough. Thanks for the airship assist."

"Shuyin!" Rikku shouted, running over.

"Arm yourselves! We have other matters to handle besides that weapon fiend." Shuyin warned.

Before any of us could enquire him about it, another voice, one I thought we'd heard the last of, pierced through the veil of pyreflies, "Oh, you are not wrong!"

"Seymour! Just how many times do you have to die before you stay dead?" I growled, readying Caladbolg.

"As many times as he has to." Areth proclaimed, walking out of the cloud.

With a smirk his way, I retorted, "Then, I guess we'll just have to smack you two down each time you sprout back up!"

"Like weeds!" Rikku mused, taunting them before pulling out her daggers.

"We're more rampant than that, I would say." Areth purred.

Shuyin dropped in out of nowhere with a Spin Cut, jeering back with, "Right, like flies. Good thing the Celsius was around to swat at least one of you."

That seriously pissed Areth off and we would find out that the weapon we crashed into was a remnant of that Trista girl we saw before, like the one Shuyin killed and then had confront Areth. Unlike the copy, the real Trista was consumed by her hatred for Lenne so when she died, it mutated her into a very powerful weapon, the Emerald Weapon, but we had taken it down by just striking it with an airship.

"You poisoned her!" Areth roared, while the rest of us were still trying to get all the facts straight.

"Ah, that I did, but you have to admit, it made swatting her a lot easier." Shuyin jeered again, blocking the rising strike.

"That's what you think. But now that she's been scattered, there's another plan in the works."

"This rivalry is surely intriguing, wouldn't you say Yuna?" Seymour interjected.

All of us took our attention to the two enemies standing in our way to facing Yu Yevon. Seymour, as usual, started to transform into a new form. This time, he didn't pull in any pyreflies. Instead, they seemed to shoot right for him, bombarding him with their power. His skin turned black as pitch and his eyes began to give off a bright yellow glow. His wild hair only got weirder, lengthening until it turned into a web behind him. Other webs of hair started to form around us, sealing us in its makeshift arena. With a loud and reverberating snicker, his black body melted away into the web.

"My turn." Areth purred, sheathing his sword.

The pyreflies covering the ship jerked away and swarmed him, shielding him from view. Shuyin tried going through the wall of pyreflies, but wasn't making any progress. He only ended up getting bounced back when the wall started to shine with a bright white light. That light eventually cocooned into a dank green, emanating streams of darkness. When the darkness got so thick it blocked out anything outside the arena, the cocoon cracked and revealed a huge Apopis creature, the human half being Areth, himself, except his eyes were black and his face emotionless. More darkness appeared and Areth's snake body began to coil, eventually turning into a staff. Meanwhile, the darkness formed into a huge centaur, a demonic Ultima Weapon-like upper half mixed with the haunches of a Sanctuary Keeper. It grabbed the staff and Areth's expression on it finally changed to show a wicked grin.

"Now we are one!" It bellowed, though it was as if he had two voices.

"No, more like you sucked out her pyreflies to use in death just like you used her in life." Shuyin corrected, getting into position.

"Silence! You are the adversary. May blight cast you out upon the desolation and war and death be your salvation!" He exclaimed.

Shuyin easily shrugged, "Death hasn't really worked for me."

"It doesn't really seem to work for someone else we all know and loathe, either." Rikku whined, looking at the webs.

"I'm not so easily slain." Seymour proclaimed, his voice coming from all sides, "I have become a nexus to your unending misery and despair."

"Dream on!" I growled, readying Caladbolg.

A moment of silence echoed all of our parts to play in this final struggle. Outside, Paine's old Crimson Squad pals and the Leblanc Syndicate were defending Spira from Sin. As for us, Areth in his new form united with the pyreflies of Trista and the brand new Seymour Nexus barred our way to Yu Yevon. This was it. The lines had been drawn. This was the beginning of the end.

Areth launched himself at Shuyin, bent on skewering him with the serpent staff. Shuyin dodged each advance, but eventually reached the end of Seymour's arena. Areth smirked at him from the other end of the staff, sending one more strike down at his opponent. As soon as he did, Shuyin rolled underneath, getting himself between where the staff landed and the creature's front haunches. Uppercutting with his sword, he sliced at the Ultima Weapon-half's arm, going for a horizontal slash at the knees when he landed. To his surprise, the arm had already reattached and Areth had his legs punt Shuyin directly into the webbing, the tendrils that used to be Seymour's hair electrocuting him when he hit.

"That can't have been pleasant." Seymour Nexus mused, still hiding in the shadows.

Out of nowhere, a black sphere shot out of one of the other webs and nearly hit us. We managed to dodge, but it took hold of Areth and faded from sight with him right away. A short while later, we felt the ground rumble and out came Areth, coming from the web that Shuyin had hit, ramming him from that web to the opposite one. As Shuyin got caught in that one, Areth charged right through, disappearing again into the darkness opposite. Again a black orb shot out of one of the webs, but this time, I jumped right into it, hoping to catch Areth wherever he went. However, as soon as the black hit me, I was thrust forward, finding myself thrown out of another web, before Seymour appeared over me, casting a black fire spell at me and sending me slamming into the ground.

"Dark Firaja! Are you okay?" Yuna screamed, running to my side.

"I'll live, but ow, what hit me?"

"Dark Firaja. Seymour's magic seems accelerated here."

"Just like last time."

"Worse. We need to find a way to beat them fast." Yuna said, helping me to my feet.

"You're not kidding." Shuyin grunted, struggling to get up.

It seemed the web I was shot out of just happened to be the one Areth disappeared into, putting me right near to Shuyin after the Continuous Thundaja cut out from the web. Just then, Areth popped back out of the next web over and we were forced to run. By this time, Paine was in her Full Throttle Dressphere and had Swords Dance skewer the thing from underneath. However, just as the spikes shot up, Areth faded again, this time, without the help of those black spheres. In his place, Seymour Nexus cast Fissure, the resulting shockwaves rippling through the blades. They snapped from the stress, but it didn't stop Paine as she had the dressphere spin, shooting the swords at the top outward and hitting each of the webs, causing a few tears. However, just as she finished, Areth's staff reappeared, but back in its serpent form and coiled around Paine and tightened. Full Throttle was rendered twisted scrap. Paine had just enough time to wrench herself free and Rikku had to "pilfer" her out before the whole thing collapsed. They both spherechanged after that, Paine to Dark Knight and Rikku to Gun Mage. As a Gun Mage, Rikku shot the snake with a Blue Bullet, but that was destroyed by a Flare just before Seymour Nexus continued on with the Multi-Flare, casting it all over. Paine decided to use a "multi" attack of her own, accessing the Dark Knight's power to cast Black Sky. Unfortunately, the small meteors struck randomly, which made it too easy for the snake to dodge and each time one got close to Seymour, he just dispelled it. As soon as the meteors stopped falling, Areth's main body came back and hit us with Darkness.

"I think we need a new strategy." Shuyin admitted, coming towards us.

"You noticed? Geez, when did they supercharge?" I grumbled.

Shuyin seemed to pause at that, looking back at the field, "You're right. When did they supercharge?"

Obviously, that was confusing and neither Yuna nor I got what he was going with it. We wouldn't have the time to figure it out as a couple of black spheres headed out of the webs at us. I managed to dodge one of them just in time, but Yuna was caught by it. Just like last time, it sent her flying out of another web. I raced for her, jumping just in time to catch a Dark Firaja in my back when I tried to catch her. The attack sent me into the far web where I was hit by a Continuous Blizzaja, slowing my movement when I finally freed myself. Yuna had transformed into Berserker while in mid-air, using a Howl to boost her abilities and land safely. At the same time, Rikku changed to Alchemist, firing a mix that gave us all Shells to protect us from the powerful magic of Seymour Nexus, then shooting a Mega Potion into the air and healing us. Shuyin followed from that, changing to Samurai and chucking fireworks at the webs, causing more damage to them. As for me, Paine and I both had the same idea, spherechanging to Psycher and using Time Trip on both our enemies. As soon as the effect took hold, Shuyin bounded for Areth, cutting off his head with a strong twisting slice. The rest of his body shattered like glass before fading away. As for Seymour Nexus, Time Trip quickly lost its hold over him, the magics no match. Before he was completely free, I changed back and went for a Spiral Cut on him with Caladbolg, but he ended up catching my weapon in his claw. Bolts of Dark Thundaja coursed through the metal blade, numbing me to my knees. Paine would quickly save me with her Telekinesis and a well-timed Teleport, but Seymour was ready, sending another black sphere our way. Instead of being shot out like before, we were stuck in it, and Seymour took every advantage, casting Requiem after Requiem until the Psycher Dressphere was destroyed. Paine was forced back into her Warrior form, but we were both out of it after so many rounds of the powerful spell. When I came to, I found the Areth thing back again and Seymour Nexus going after Yuna and Rikku. Shuyin flipped over one of Areth's tail whips, switching it up with Yuna, who went back to Gunner, feeding a Trigger Happy to the creature while Shuyin went for a Zantetsu on Seymour. He would miss and hit the web behind him instead, but the attack was enough to finally take out that side. With Cat Nip equipped, Twin Bee's bullets did enough damage to take out Areth, the staff slithering away as the creature collapsed and faded. However, just as soon, Areth came back out of the web, now wielding a giant Naginata in his free hand. He wrote a death sigil in the air with it, activating Doom. The meteors focused on Shuyin, but he went after Rikku.

"I think I understand! It's the web!" Yuna shouted, having been left open to counter.

She spherechanged to Floral Fallal and performed a Great Whirl, the gusts of energy pounding at each of the remaining webs. Seymour Nexus grew nervous and stopped hiding, his arachnid body crawling at a quick pace. Having recovered just enough, I rolled forward and managed to chop off two legs on his right, setting him off balance. Before he could recover, Yuna hit him with Dream Pollen and gave me my opening. I looked at Caladbolg, lifting it up and thought about using an Overdrive. Then, I got a different idea. Taking out my Something Unique Garment Grid, I changed to White Mage, the pure white tux draping over my blitz gear as it melted away. Yuna looked at me in confusion, but I winked some reassurance at her before working my magic. Much to both their surprise, I cast Full Life on him.

I had a hunch that he wasn't even an unsent anymore. What did he have left to fight for? He wasn't going to be Sin last time when we beat him and had him sent. He wasn't going to kill us all in vengeance with Yu Yevon pulling his strings and now he definitely wasn't going to be anything more than a lackey knowing that his boss's plan was to eliminate the planet and rebuild it. He had to have been a puppet, pyreflies of himself stacked back together just to slow us down. He was broken and Yu Yevon was using it to his advantage, which meant that to stop him, we needed to do the one thing nobody ever tried to do for him in life: Save him. Full Life struck him hard and began purifying his "wounds". His black body disintegrated and his tainted yellow eyes dimmed back to blue. The real Seymour returned, collapsing in a heap before his pyreflies started streaming out of him.

Struggling to straighten himself, his eyes gave me a look of sincerity at last, "Thank you…"

With that, he was gone, the rest of his pyreflies drifting into the rest of Sin's. Meanwhile, Areth had just struck Rikku harshly with a Zantetsuken from his Naginata. Rikku had blocked with her daggers, but the force of it shattered them into tiny shards. Paine changed to Gun Mage, now that Seymour wasn't around to dispel her bullets and hit Areth with a SuperNova. Unfortunately, Areth just absorbed it into the weapon and sent it all over the place in pieces. But, his time was drawing near. After we all dodged the counterattack, I found Rikku with two new daggers in hand, running right towards a surprised Areth. She kicked off him, getting high up in the air before going into a backflip. The whole way down, her daggers left copies of themselves floating. When she landed, they all directed their points at him and shot down, stabbing him several times before exploding. His body exploded, the staff falling from his dispersed hand.

Just then, Shuyin dashed forth and stabbed the staff right in the mouth, "Thought we wouldn't catch on?"

As soon as he said that, the staff softened and rose back as the Apopis it started off as, but Shuyin kept his sword in place, adding, "You've hidden behind illusions all your life. Each time something didn't go your way, you made up a lie to justify it. Each time you did something your conscience regretted, you retreated to those same lies, telling yourself they were necessary evils. Areth, why do you think your illusions keep getting more and more monstrous?"

Before he could answer, Shuyin charged his Force Rain and unleashed the energy through Areth's serpentine form. The blast ripped through as Areth howled in pain, his body returning to normal and disintegrating into pyreflies.

"Areth, you have to accept reality or you'll never be at peace. Believe me, I know first hand." Shuyin told him, going to his side.

Areth collapsed against Shuyin before his body finally gave in, fading away completely. Shuyin took some time to get up, but when he did, Rikku hopped right to his side. The rest of us slowly convened on their location after getting back to our normal forms. Our surroundings were also changing and I had a good idea where we were headed, but we had a few more moments to prepare ourselves for it. It was time for the final showdown and all our friends were with us.

"This is my story." I said in sync with Yuna, surprising us both.

She nodded to me, "And I said I'd make it a good one."

"No." Shuyin suddenly muttered, standing up and walking over to us, "You had your story. So did you. Mine's left unfinished."

With that, he walked over to what looked like a swirling vortex of pyreflies, "It's about time I ended it."

"I want you to know what I really am." Rikku whispered softly, "I never thought I'd feel this way towards you…"

The vortex pushed past us and we found ourselves back on the airship, flying over that familiar mini-Zanarkand from two years ago. The same ominous aura was present. Yuna and I walked to the edge of the ship just as pyreflies started to gather up ahead.

"And if you ever need someone to come along… I will follow you and keep you strong." Rikku finished saying.

_Tabi wa mada tsudzuiteku_

_Odayakana hi mo_

_Tsuki wa mata atarashii shuuki_

_De fune wo terashidasu_

_Inori wo sasagete_

_Atarashii hi wo matsu_

_Azayaka ni hikaru umi_

_Sono hate made_

As the pyreflies collected together, our thoughts converged on our future. Together, we were strong, strong enough to rise above Yu Yevon's madness. Together, there was nothing that could prevent the Eternal Calm from continuing. We had a future. Our prayers would be answered.

_And every time I see your face,_

_The oceans heave up to my heart_

_You make me wanna strain at the oars,_

_And soon I can see the shore_

_Unmei no fune wo kogi_

_Nami wa tsugi kara tsugi e to_

_Watashitachi wo osou kedo_

_Sore mo suteki na tabi ne_

Shuyin started for the edge, his sword at the ready. Rikku followed at his heels, her new daggers glistening against the brightening light of the pyreflies. The rest of us also stood strong, ready to brave the coming tide. We told ourselves we could take whatever Yu Yevon threw at us.

_Dore mo suteki na tabi ne_

As Shuyin got closer, the pyreflies finished drawing together and a shape started to form from the light. The clearer it got, the more we wanted to rush in and take it down fast.

The last of the light died down and Shuyin lifted his sword, ready to strike… until, "No…"

**Author's Note:** No? You'd think after everything they spoke about, the confidence they built up over the last few chapters, Shuyin would go all out. What could have put a halt to his step? O_o

Next chapter is actually going to end it, but in keeping with how Final Fantasy X-2 was, I'm going to be ending this fiction with a Normal, Good, and Perfect Ending. By that, I mean, Chapter 48 is going to feature one ending, then another Chapter 48 will detail an alternate ending, and finally, I'll have an Epilogue in place for a Perfect Ending style concluding chapter. Who will win? Who will lose? Will there be a sacrifice? Find out next time!


	49. AscendingとRebirth

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** Alright, let's get down to it! This is the final battle between the group and Yu Yevon. What does the master summoner have in store for the group? You know it can't be good, but just how bad can it get? At the end of the last chapter, Shuyin stopped himself from attacking. Why is that? Just how hard are these final steps on their road to ending Spira's Eternal Discord? ^_~

Without further ado, I present the final chapter to this story!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Chapter 48: Ascending**

Shuyin

_"He was right. He was right all along. You did come for me and you didn't accept my logic. The things I've done, my mission, how could I have fallen so far?"_

_ "You saw, didn't you? You saw through my mask. You tried. Each time, you tried. The lies I told never worked on you even if I, myself, was fooled."_

_ "It's up to you then… But you'll make it. You'll finish this chapter. End this story for all of us."_

Had it been a trick? Was that his final illusion? How was I expected to make it through this challenge? How could I be expected to? We'd been through everything together. We were the closest people could ever come to be. How could she?

"Kirin, why did you do this to me?" I found myself uttering.

This was no ordinary Final Aeon. The rest of them gasped in shock when they saw. Yu Yevon had created the perfect weapon and that vicious grin on his face proved he knew he had. I wasn't going to make it, not after this.

"Is this who you really are, Kirin?" I grumbled beneath my breath.

"This is unreal." Rikku whined beside me, her hands cupped over her mouth.

"No, it can't be…" Yuna mumbled absentmindedly, talking a few small steps forward until my better stopped her.

"What is this?" Paine asked in a seething tone.

"Lenne…" I finally managed to say, gazing upon her beautiful form.

As soon as I did, the old coot cackled, getting himself into position within his new host and I was forced to watch my love transform in horror. They rose together and the soft fabrics of her clothing unwound, giving way to jagged and unwelcoming armour. Spined gauntlets appeared in place of her sleeves. Her ruffled blouse became white robes underneath boney layers of platemail. Her skin paled into cerulean and then sharpened to appear almost crystalline. As it did, I saw her eyes grow cold and white, the melancholic expression upon her gentle countenance breaking my heart. A crown of thorns adorned her, its ruby center emanating a blood red glow. As it shined once, three pairs of feathery wings extended from her back. As it shined again, several vines of thorns shot out from the surface of Sin and bound her, holding her in her place, as a captive. The ruby shined once more and the entire area began to rumble, the airship fading away as a new surface replaced it. It shined one final time and two obelisks rose from either side, several of the vines attaching Lenne to them. Glyphs on their stone faces gave off an eerie green glow as the ruby finally dimmed.

I gazed up at my Lenne's cold face, her eyes finding their way to me, as well. I could sense it; she wasn't a willing host. She wasn't there by choice, but she was being made to witness everything. Yu Yevon wanted her to be present for this fight, not because he was so confident he could keep her under his control, but because it meant everything we did, we'd be doing to her. How was I to make it? Was this Areth's final lie?

As I continued to stare into her eyes, I felt the world change around me. Suddenly, I wasn't standing within Sin. Suddenly, Lenne wasn't the Final Aeon opposing us. I found myself in Zanarkand, on a familiar road. To my left, a neon advert of my father glimmered against the side of a building, the same one I had mocked each time I had the chance. Lenne's form floated down to me, landing just out of reach.

"Lenne…"

Without a second wasted, she threw herself into my arms, embracing me tightly. I pulled her in closer and drowned everything else out. Why couldn't it stay like this? Why did we always have to be pulled apart by circumstance? Over one thousand years had passed us and we still couldn't be together. It wasn't fair.

"Hold onto me, love. You know I can't stay long. All I want to say is I love you and I'm not afraid…"

Then, she was gone. The world came crashing back and my love was the Final Aeon again, bound by Yu Yevon's will. It was too much. How was I to make it? I felt myself sinking, falling to my knees in defeat.

"Shuyin! Get up! It's starting!" My better shouted.

The others all rallied to fight her, so ready to slay the person I most wanted to save in this world. It all came rushing back to me. I didn't calculate how ruthless Bevelle would be in the war and all my friends were taken from me. I ended up fighting more of its forces than the summoners on the front because none of us had expected them to bypass us on the Calm Lands. It rendered Zanarkand in ruin and Bevelle the de facto victor, but they weren't going to stop there. They would take her from me. I wasn't going to let them. I wasn't going to let him and his schemes take her away from me. No, I'd rather murder an entire city than lose her… And yet…

"He's out of it. We'll have to handle her ourselves!" Paine exclaimed, her sword's blade glistening in the light of Sin's pyreflies.

It wouldn't be soon. Soon, it would be stained in blood just like mine had been that night, so much blood that it drowned the pristine glow my sword normally had. I felt myself lifting my hands to my eyes. They were warm and dripping with it. I'd taken so many lives, what was this one to me? I couldn't save anyone. I wasn't the hero here. No, I'm just a murderer.

"Murderer…" My voice uttered beneath its breath.

"What was that?" The dream asked, having stayed back while the others attacked.

Even in such a daze, those senses never felt clearer. I heard all the sounds, each cut they made against her, each bullet that pierced her form. My pyreflies did the rest. They flooded the area and sensed the things human senses couldn't detect. They showed me how my love suffered and that Yu Yevon had wanted her to suffer. They told me all the vile thoughts going through his own pyreflies and how much he relished the moral dilemma haunting all of us. However, there was no morality to my being. What had I done in virtue? I'd killed for my own benefit since I was fourteen.

"I killed them all…"

"Shuyin, now's not a good time for this episode you're going through." His words, always his words.

"Lenne, stop this!" Rikku's pained voice pleaded, "You have to be strong enough to beat his control."

No, she wasn't. That wouldn't make her Lenne, after all. She was such a compassionate person. She always considered others before herself and went beyond the call of duty to do what needed to be done for the greater good. She wasn't like us. No, Yu Yevon and I were always doing what we wanted done. We're villains, you see.

"Nothing will stand in the way of our ambition."

"What is the matter with you?" Rikku shouted.

"Villains like us are nothing more than cowards. Let's hide from reality by shaping it however we choose."

"I thought we were over this already!" She whined.

"Probably just the push he needed to sink back down." Paine suggested.

"I think Yevon's Final Aeon caught all of us by surprise." Yuna added.

"Worst yet, she's not even moving." My better announced, waving them to Lenne, "It's like he wants us to kill her."

Of course, he did. It was such a perfect double-edged sword. Lenne was never someone to lash out or fight her allies. If she had her wits about her, not even total control would have her raise a finger. So why not torture those wits away? Why not show her how little her good deeds have counted? He had her own allies out for her blood and, each time they struck, they only tainted their own virtuous souls.

"Defile them and show them the truth of darkness. There is no hope, only despair. Nothing is absolute but death."

"Look, get a hold of-" I didn't let him finish.

"I kill you and your struggling will cease." I grumbled deep in my throat, taking a firm hold of my blade.

"Shuyin, what are you doing?" Yuna asked, reaching out to pull at my arm.

Stopping as she held me back, I turned my darkened blue eyes to her and she let me go immediately. Without another moment wasted, I roared my rage and rushed to my love. As soon as I was close enough, I swung out my sword, aiming for a decapitating blow. It was blocked. The attack was a failure… another failure. Looking past my opponent, I found Lenne, her countenance wild and loosing an uncharacteristic cackle at my missed opportunity. It wasn't my love's laughter; it was her captor, howling with glee over what he'd reduced me to. Assuming full control, he had her levitate higher, the closest vines pulling taught. My eyes shifted to the one who had stopped me with bitterness. What right did he have to stop me? I wasn't him. I didn't walk the path of a hero and I never wanted to. I just wanted an end.

"Get out of my way." I said lowly.

"No."

I struck harshly with my sword, knocking him back a few steps, "Get out of my way."

"No." He repeated once he recovered, holding his sword out in defence.

Stalking to him, I raised my sword and bashed it into his again and again. The force of my blows strengthened each round, knocking him further and further until he was on his knees. I kept going and he had to plant his other hand on the ground behind him for support. I struck him again and our swords began to pulsate. I struck him again and felt the distance between us shorten. I struck him… He struck me. I felt the fist push deep into my middle, toppling me over.

"Hey! You realize what you're doing, right?" He growled, pulling me by the collar, "Your head has to be clear. Remember when Areth got to Yuna? I listened. It's time you did the same. Help us save Lenne."

Staring at his eyes that stared at me, I realized how right he was, waking from my daze, "You know, you _are_ more than a dream."

With a light chuckle, he replied, "I was based off a good guy."

After that, he stood back up and gave me his hand. My thoughts trailed from him, from the battle, back to that road in Zanarkand. Lenne was just out of reach, but I was getting closer.

_"Thank you, Shuyin." She said, her eyes tracing up from my chest to meet with mine._

_ "You keep saying that, but I never saved you." I said through gritted teeth._

_ "You are always with me. Even here, in such a place, you came to me. I could never ask for more."_

_ "You deserve more! You deserve better than this." I grumbled, my hand tightening on the sphere in my hand._

_ "You always tried to protect me." She said, her eyes finding the sphere, "That's why you wouldn't let me go to the front."_

_ I looked at the sphere in my hand. It was the same one I had shattered when we had our fight. It was the sphere with a message for all summoners, to have them go to the Calm Lands front._

_ "You went to Bevelle on your own just to protect me from it." She continued._

_ "But you wouldn't let me. You knew it wasn't worth the cost. I still have my doubts about it at times, but I know you were right. Still…"_

_ "You always tried to protect me."_

_ "Yea…"_

_ "Now, protect them."_

I found myself standing tall, a firm grasp of the weapon in my hand. Despite everything that had happened, Lenne and I were on opposite sides. She was there to hold me back from destroying Bevelle. She was there to stop me destroying Spira with Vegnagun. Now, here she was again, stopping me from destroying Sin. However, this time, it was artificial. She wasn't trying to stop me anymore. I wasn't the antagonist anymore. Yu Yevon was to blame for this odd twist of fate. I prayed that that would make a difference.

"Hey, we could use some help here!" Paine called out, gaining both of our attention.

"What's going on?" My better asked.

"These vines just multiplied!" Rikku pointed out.

"I thought we had her until all of them suddenly covered her up." Paine added, cutting away at them.

Yuna spherechanged to Berserker and suggested, "We'll have to cut through them again if we want to get to her."

"I agree." I replied, "We should be careful. I don't like this. Yu Yevon should've tapped into Lenne's magic by now. Why would he be shielding her with Sin like this?"

"Less yapping, more hacking!" Rikku yelled, cutting apart the vines at the root with her, or rather, Kirin's old daggers.

The rest of us took our places and slashed away at them, severing each of the vines. All the while, it struck me as odd that Yu Yevon would waste his powerful weapon like this, holding her at bay while using Sin instead. Even if he didn't have full control of her, he had to have seen the open opportunity. Even a few well-placed spells could have us reeling and if he could harness her overdrives, we'd be in trouble.

"Something is out of place." I muttered as we kept cutting.

"What are you on about?" Paine grumbled, taking out her Garment Grid only to sigh at her non-functioning Full Throttle Dressphere, "We have to get these clear fast before more shoot up."

"Are you sensing anything from Sin, Shuyin?" Rikku asked, hopping closer.

Huffing out a breath in frustration, I shook my head, "No, it's probably nothing. Besides, we don't have a better plan."

With that out of the way, we were tearing the vines apart and making short work of Yu Yevon's handiwork. Still, something wasn't right about it. It was as if he wanted us to freely attack him. After all, the vines weren't attacking us. Lenne wasn't attacking us. It was all just a bit unlikely.

"We're making progress! I can almost see her!" My better said, pointing out Lenne's Final Aeon form behind a few more vines.

Ignoring my doubts, I sliced cleanly through another vine. Once it was severed, I noticed one of the vines around Lenne loosen meaning it had been one of the original batch that ensnared her. We really were getting through. However, it was then I noticed Lenne wince as if in pain. Looking back at where I had cut, I saw something oozing from it and went to investigate. Upon closer observation, I concluded that it had to have been blood. These vines were a part of her Aeon form?

"Guys!" I alerted, trying to inform the others, but it was too late.

Each of the remaining vines was hacked apart and the ones binding Lenne loosened completely and fell away. As we watched on, Lenne spread the wings on her back and floated higher, lifting her arms and beginning to channel the massive quantities of pyreflies around us. They started collecting near her, forming ten concentrated groupings.

"What's going on now?" The other blitz ace asked.

Within moments, we had our answer. Sigils appeared where the pyreflies had gathered, each one unique to what it was calling. Following the sigils came the towers of energy, the power released from the pyreflies in order to fuse together. This would drain them and they'd need another source of energy to sustain themselves. I turned my attention to Lenne and saw the glow expanding from behind her wings. It was true; she was calling for them.

As the first of them took form, Yuna gasped, "It can't be."

The first to complete was Valefor, something I knew would be the most troubling for her, except that she didn't recognise it. No, she didn't and neither would she identify the rest of them. They were all strangers to her as Aeons of this Spira weren't unique to the summoner creating them. However, there was one she would know very well. It was what drew me to possessing them back when I was unsent. Once the others had formed, the greatest beast among them descended from above, called down by the pyreflies. As soon as it landed, its wings spread out and it let loose a roar to demonstrate its immense power.

"Is that?" She gasped again, covering he mouth with both of her hands.

"Bahamut." I finished for her.

"Are they… Aeons?" She asked.

"Lenne's lineup."

"That's not possible. All of the fayth were sent."

"Summoning worked differently back then. A fayth was unique to each summoner and their pyreflies were absorbed by the summoner they chose. They are a part of her and she'll always have access to them; it was one of the reasons I was worried when Yu Yevon didn't use them." I explained.

"Which ones are they, though?"

We didn't have time left for the Q&A. Just as Bahamut readied itself, the others began their approach. Valefor took to the air, its two sets of wings allowing it to maneuver smoothly through the air. Leviathan slithered behind it as backup while Ixion charged its Aerospark ability in the palms of his hands. Kinok burrowed under whatever it was we were standing on and Titan assisted it by loosening the, whatever we were standing on. As soon as it started to rumble, we knew we had to move.

Ifrit came at me first, bounding for me on all four. Unlike the Ifrit Yuna knew, this one was more feral, its body lengthened to more of a wolf shape. It was still capable of standing on its hind legs, but it would hulk over more with its lanky torso lacking the same support the modern Ifrit had. It was faster because of it and, with Lenne's strength within it, it was a dangerous adversary. I baited it towards me as Odin leaped overhead to the blitz ace, who just barely dodged its jousts on its thunderous pass. Odin didn't stop there; it immediately doubled back and cast Thundaga on him, catching him in the back. He rolled out of the way just in time before Titan could pound him down with its hammer. Right after, Ifrit showed me that I had miscalculated. It wasn't me baiting it; it was leading me. My attention returned to my own situation and that's when I noticed Shiva standing ahead while Ifrit herded me in her direction. With a kiss, she blew powder snow at me, the intense cold slowing my movement enough for Ifrit to slam its claw into my back, sending me lurching forward into the ground.

Before they could do any more damage, Rikku jumped in, swiping away the werewolf with her daggers before switching to Gun Mage and pointing a Blue Bullet at Shiva to back her away. However, she didn't see Ixion to her left casting Thundaga. The bolts struck her gun and forced her away, Rikku changing to Psycher to teleport away before Kinok's Quake Burst could hit. Paine launched her own attack at the Aeon while its tail made it immobile, but Leviathan swooped in to save it, ensnaring her in its coils. Paine changed to Dark Knight, using its armour to safeguard against being crushed. As an added bonus, she cast a close range Darkness on the Aeon, causing heavy damage until Valefor interfered and knocked her away with its Sonic Wings.

The distractions were enough to let me escape, but the strongest of them, Bahamut, was at the ready. Diving down, it surprised me as I ran to regroup, its claws swiping across my chest just as Trista's had done so many years before it. Lenne's Bahamut was stronger. It wasn't like Trista's or even Larea's Bahamut. Which was why I knew just when I recovered that Impulse was headed for me. The tremendous force of pure white energy struck me before I had any chance to counter, the raw power behind it throwing me a good ten yards away.

When I regained my footing, I went to head back into the fray, but I was stopped. A wall of pyreflies barred my path then encircled me. As they mingled with my own, I realized I knew these pyreflies.

"Larea." I mouthed, the battle still raging onward in the distance.

They slowly drew together and her form appeared from them, "You used us."

"You showed us horrors unimaginable." Another of the Zanarkand fayth said.

I nodded solemnly to them and a third approached, arriving from the ether, "But that was only a short while."

"Yu Yevon held us for one thousand agonizing years and fooled us with hopes of saving Zanarkand." Larea clarified.

"We asked Yuna to save us." Bahamut's fayth appeared behind her.

"We were weak." Valefor's fayth admitted.

"Now, we know our power." Ixion's fayth exclaimed, electricity pulsing from his fists as he melted back into the pyreflies with a few of the others.

Shiva's fayth placed her gentle hand on my shoulder, "Be our summoner. Use us as your weapon."

Understanding what they wanted of me, I focused on my pyreflies, sending them out into the cloud they had produced. No, not just them. I felt it, I felt those pyreflies that Yu Yevon had recently absorbed from the resurrected Zanarkand. That was right. He fell for my ruse and it was only to my benefit. I had a tremendous supply of spiritual power to tap into. Reaching out further into the ethereal space, I found them, I called to them, and they answered. Using the combined swarms of the Zanarkand fayth, the Zanarkand people, and my own hordes as unsent, I pulled their creations from the ether.

Just then Lenne's Cerebrus leaped forward, trying to stop me, but it was too late. From the pyreflies, my Valefor erupted, clawing at the larger Aeon with its talons before my Shiva assaulted it with its Heavenly Strike, causing it to retreat. With a wave of my hand, I commanded my Ifrit to aid Yuna and Paine who were being overwhelmed by Lenne's Ixion and Odin. Odin charged towards Paine who was too weakened to move out of the way. Ifrit leaped onto its Sleipnir and began clawing into its back. However, Ifrit was no match for an Aeon as powerful as Odin so when I noticed it going for Thor's Wrath, I quickly had it disengage and sent Mindy in to distract it with her stinger.

"It's still a long shot, but we're making progress. Ixion!" I said, calling for the horse.

Getting on it, I rode to Rikku, who was having trouble handing Lenne's Valefor. As soon as I reached them, I jumped from Ixion and had it give Rikku a lift while I landed on Valefor. My time on the wyvern would be short-lived as her Bahamut rushed in with another Impulse. I managed to dodge it this time by falling from Valefor, but my position in the air made me vulnerable. Cue Sandy, who came in with a swift Razzia to blind Lenne's Bahamut and carry me back to safety on the ground.

"Did I say safety?" I said, running as Cerebrus came at me.

"Holy crap, what's with the Aeon parade?" My better asked as we found ourselves together.

"I think Zanarkand's fayth got a bit attached to me when I was possessing them before." I mused, deflecting one of Cerebrus' vipers from biting.

"This is nuts!" He shouted, swinging me about so I could kick Lenne's Ifrit while he slashed off a few snakes from Cerebrus' mane.

"Gift horses, right?" I managed to get out before Lenne's Leviathan forced us to separate.

Rikku held out her hand while still mounted on my Ixion and I got on behind her. Together, we rode in towards Yuna, Paine, and my Ifrit. I had Ixion use Aerospark on Odin, but that was just to distract it while I had Ifrit hurl one of its meteors at Lenne's Ixion. The shot blinded it enough for Yuna to get in close and Trigger Happy it while equipped with Cat Nip. Her fatigue activated the SOS function of the accessory and severely wounded the shaman. However, with Odin so close, all it took was a Thundaga to revitalize the Aeon and we were back to square one.

"The fayth." Yuna gasped in acknowledgement.

"Yea, they're here to help." I said, "We have to separate these two. They're too complimentary."

As my Ixion was also a thunder-based creature, I had Rikku stay with them while I went to attack Odin. Running in close, I ducked under a swipe of its joust and slashed at one of Sleipnir's legs, irking the knight. It charged at me, but I simply called my Valefor to lift me into the air. Instead, it came face to face with an Aeon I hadn't even realized I summoned, Trista's Special Aeon, Yojimbo. It was too late for it to recover from its mistake. With one strong slash of its Zanmato, Odin found itself bisected and scattering into pyreflies.

Without Odin to help it, Lenne's Ixion was made vulnerable. I had Ifrit, now at capacity, to launch its Hellfire at the shaman. Yuna and Paine both spherechanged, Yuna back to Berserker while Paine went with Thief. Once Ifrit lifted the large slab of… whatever it was we were standing on, Yuna and Paine leaped onto it, following it and the pillar of fire to Ixion moments before Lenne's Leviathan swooped in to douse the flames with Waterga. Yuna clawed at the large Aeon while Paine only hitched a ride on it to make her way onto Lenne's Valefor. Once she had her balance on the wyvern, she changed again back to Warrior and stabbed it through the skull. Valefor whined and faltered and, as it did, Paine lunged from its dissipating body into Titan. Meanwhile, despite Yuna's best efforts, Leviathan managed to shake her and escape. Lenne's Ixion, on the other hand, was having trouble keeping on its feet. It was the perfect time to have my Valefor finish it off. However, Larea got to the scene first and had Mindy Passado it into defeat.

It was then that I noticed the obelisks that had been beside Lenne were no longer there. Something else that struck me as odd was when I remembered counting only ten Aeons summoned by her. She had twelve in total, which meant…

"Ah!" Rikku screamed as Ixion abruptly collapsed.

I got off Valefor to help Rikku up. Looking at the horse's wounds just before it exploded into pyreflies, I saw bite marks on its nape and knew it had to have been caused by only one Aeon. That was when I noticed another troubling detail. Lenne was nowhere in sight.

"Everybody, keep on the lookout. Lenne's summoned her final two Aeons." I said, getting into a defensive position.

"Two more? How many did she have?" Rikku complained.

"Twelve in total: All five of the ones available during the pilgrimages, Kinok, Titan, Cerebrus, Leviathan, Odin, then Zaroth and Elumina." I explained.

"I don't see a Zaroth or Elumina around here. Do you?" My better asked, his Caladbolg shifting uneasily in his hand.

"That's the Celestial Shroud for you. She summoned them after we turned the tide. We have to draw them out. Keep up the attack!"

Valefor was the next to succumb to the invisible hits. As soon as it fell, I sliced at the air next to it, but didn't strike anything. Kinok took to the front next, digging its tail into the ground again. This time, rather than using its Quake Burst, it went for its overdrive instead, the Grasp of Gaia. I knew what the attack entailed and told everyone to run from its attack radius. However, my Ifrit wasn't fast enough. Kinok pulled it by the leg underground, Ifrit struggling against it the entire way. Once buried under the earth, Kinok compacted the ground and caused it to collapse inward, creating a sinkhole in its wake and allowing Ifrit's fallen pyreflies back out. We didn't waste a moment of the opportunity. Before the lizard could pull out, Rikku teleported to it and struck it with Time Trip. While frozen, the rest of us hacked it to pieces, the remainder of my Aeons holding Lenne's at bay. As Kinok fell, Bahamut rose, casting Impulse at us. I had my Bahamut fire Impulse back, but its smaller spheres of black energy were no match for it. Lenne's Bahamut dove down, leaving us just enough time to dodge, my own Bahamut rolling out of the way. I finally found Lenne again, hovering just a short distance away, but that only meant something worse. Elumina had lifted the Celestial Shroud, which made it active. Of her Aeons, nothing was as powerful as Elumina. It had taken all her other Aeons and the three of us, Lenne, Kirin, and I, just to stop its fiend trial.

Lenne wasn't making the fight any easier. Having stepped out from the shroud, she had become active, as well. Her first move was to evoke her Siren's Song, taking momentary control of all of us for just enough time to have each of us cast Entrust on one of her Aeons, rendering us weaker while her Aeons became empowered with their overdrives. Leviathan took to the sky next and I knew what was coming. From the horizon, a great tidal wave loomed. Leviathan's Tsunami was an onslaught of water not even Lenne had had full control over. As the waters drew near, I had my Bahamut disengage from Lenne's and take me to the sea serpent. Due to its withdrawal, Lenne's Bahamut managed to tear off its ring, rendering it unable to use Megaflare. However, Tsunami was the major issue at present so it soared straight for it, planting its claws into the serpent's underbelly. With a howl of pain, it stopped its attack, but my Bahamut stayed with it. Its claws dug through Leviathan's softer underside and created deep wounds, which was perfect for the dragon to call its Triple Foul into play, launching it directly into the Aeon. The spell tore through it and it shattered into pyreflies, Bahamut flying away as it did. On the ground, Cerebrus roared its overdrive, Guardian of Hell into play. Though I did not see it take effect, I knew what the attack entailed. My Shiva was a goner, taken into a fiery dimension to be bombarded by intense flames and tormented by ghosts of the damned. Once the attack finished, Shiva's blackened and writhing corpse quickly dissolved into pyreflies.

"We're not doing too well." Rikku shouted, "We've only got four Aeons left!"

"It's fine. There's only five of them." My better reassured, though he was wrong.

"Actually, there's seven." I said, pointing up high, "And that one's the worst!"

Elumina descended from on high and fired several arrows from her bow. Just like that, my Ifrit was destroyed and Yuna, Rikku, and Paine had to spherechange. My Bahamut managed to survive the assault, but it was waning. The Silence the arrow induced rendered it unable to cast spells to heal itself. Yojimbo and the Magus Sisters managed to escape just fine and both us blitzers had deflected her attack.

Zaroth came from behind to try sending me into the Abyss with its overdrive, but I sensed its presence after our long history in the past and was able to stab it through the heart. Yojimbo did the honours by unleashing Zanmato again and slicing off the vampire's head. However, as soon as it sheathed its sword, Cerebrus lunged forth, biting off its head. The decapitated samurai fell to one knee before dispersing into pyreflies. It did, surprisingly, leave Daigoro behind, which I advantaged. I sent the smaller canine into the one of the roaring mouths of Cerebrus, the tiny Aeon part self-destructing inside the fiery belly of Lenne's hound. With it weakened, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine attacked it together. Rikku and Paine had both changed to Dark Knight, bombarding the beast with Darkness while Yuna resumed Gunner form and overwhelmed it in a hail of bullets. Once Cerebrus fell, Lenne's Shiva summoned Diamond Dust to her aid, the blizzard freezing the Dark Knights in their tracks. Unfortunately for her, the rest of us were fast enough to dodge it and Larea had the combined might of the Magus Sisters take her down. Delta Attack completely obliterated the ice queen right as Titan tried to clasp them in its stoney vice, evoking Gaia's Rage. The three were too swift for it, but it turned its overdrive into a continuous attack, the stone hands landing vicious blows against them, Mindy even being swatted flat into the ground.

"That's not very gentlemanly of you." My better said, using his own overdrive of Slice & Dice.

Each blow to the distracted Aeon caused tremendous damage and before long, pyreflies exhumed from the open wounds upon its form and its body disintegrated back into sand. Lenne only had three Aeons left to harness. It precipitated into a more active role for her in the battle. My guess was that Yu Yevon realised just how much he underestimated the opposing party. What was worse, we began to hear sounds coming from the outside, sounds like Gippal's rockets. They were making progress on the ground, thinning the layers of armour on this Sin much as we were nicking away at his internal defences.

Elumina struck us with another shower of arrows, but included her daggers in the mix, too. The volley came with a simultaneous ambush from her Ifrit, which caught us off balance. My better and I dodged the bolts headed for us, rolling past one another. When I got back to my feet, I stabbed through one aimed at Yuna while he managed to slice apart the ones headed for Paine and Rikku. My Aeons weren't so lucky. Larea was mostly fine, but Mindy was showing some wear. Sandy had unsuccessfully countered with Razzia, but Cindy managed to strike her with her Camisade. Of course, such a weak attack on a goddess like Elumina posed little threat and she simply countered back with an Ultima. Cindy was down. After all the abuse my Bahamut had taken, it was about ready to collapse, too, but I knew in its exhaustion that it had one final attack left.

Trouble was, Ifrit remained on the prowl and there was no opportunity to leave me free to get to Bahamut. Lenne began casting Firaja upon the surface everywhere between her Aeon and our group, which made it all the more comfortable for the fire-imbued wolf to launch an attack. The flames sheltered it and provided it camouflage. It jumped out once and managed to sear my right shoulder on a pass. Another one followed, catching Caladbolg away and hiding it amongst the fire. A few more passes allowed it to send Meteor Strikes at the girls, though Paine was able to snatch one when she changed to Samurai. The meteor exploded before it could reconnect with the Aeon, but the counter did afford us some time. At least, it would have except that Elumina fired her arrows again and we were all on the run. Rikku changed to Machina Maw so we could hide behind it while she could still command the machina to launch its missiles at the goddess. Lenne's Bahamut countered for her instead, catching them with various elemental magic before sending Impulse our way. Machina Maw absorbed most of the damage, but it wouldn't have lasted a full blast, so we blitzers stepped in, channeling the rest into our swords. He had changed to Samurai, as well, his katana still fit to house the energy. Though we had held off Impulse, Lenne and her three remaining Aeons still had us pinned. It wouldn't be long before one of them had the stamina to release an overdrive and either NovaBurst or Megaflare would be enough to vapourise us.

The sounds of rattling chains alerted us to a new presence. Yuna and Paine peeked out ahead into the burning terrain and reported seeing a familiar anchor drop down into it, the metal item smothering most of the flames near it. We stepped out from Rikku's machina and watched as my last Aeon revealed itself, the Dark Aeon, Anima. It let loose a terrible moan as Ifrit dashed out from the dying embers and struck it with Pain, Ifrit exploding into pyreflies immediately. With Ifrit lost to her, Lenne commanded Elumina to charge NovaBurst, which I knew meant we had little time left. I ordered Anima to use Pain on Lenne herself, knowing that an Aeon can't exist without its summoner. Pain landed directly at the heart of my love, but it didn't stop her, the only visible damage being the cracks in her crystalline skin. Instead, it would be Lenne singing her Song of Submission to cause Anima to wither into a husk, slowly crumbling to dust. Of course, the attack had been a distraction and it worked. I had gotten to my Bahamut and had it fly me to her at full speed. She countered with her own Bahamut, ready with its overdrive boiling in its mouth. Likewise, I commanded my Bahamut to release its Megaflare. The two immense blasts of energy raced to one another, seemingly canceling out until my Bahamut's power waned with the loss of its ring and its Megaflare exhausted. Lenne's had been much stronger and its Megaflare had crippled other Bahamuts of our time. Once the opposing Megaflare reached, the dragon threw me from its back, its destruction creating a fog intent on allowing me to complete my move. Sandy caught me mid-fall and took me the rest of the way, Mindy keeping close to defend us against Lenne's potent magics. It was too late, though. I had arrived, Lenne and my eyes meeting once more.

_ "Can you hear me?"_

The battlefield dropped away again, though this time, Lenne and I remained in the air. She glided to me, taking hold as Larea let go. I looked into her eyes as the din of war melted away, but we both knew there was more to be done.

_"Can you feel me in your arms?" _She whispered as I wrapped my arms around her, _"… holding my last breath."_

I gripped my sword tight and pushed the blade forth into her. I looked into her eyes again, those cold white eyes that showed such sadness and cried for her. Her body began fading and we floated back down to the surface of Sin. As soon as my feet touched the ground, she was gone, a few feathers from her wings being the last to fade.

"Shuyin…" I heard Yuna whisper.

'Now, it falls on your shoulders.' Larea told me within my mind.

Elumina's NovaBurst had completed, but she had the Magus Sisters block it from hitting any of us, sacrificing herself in the process. With Lenne gone, Elumina could no longer maintain her form and faded, too, leaving the five of us the only survivors of the battle. While the rest of them regrouped and healed with the Alchemist Dressphere, I was lost to my own devices again. My mind haunted me with images, past and present, of everything we'd lost because of one man's desires. They were all crying out inside of me, the pyreflies of the fallen fayth, those of my people in Zanarkand, and still those countless souls that had traversed the Farplane. I had felt them before, but their violation of my mind only drove me insane in the past. I had lost my purpose, given in to the crushing pressure of life's unending torment. I told myself I had a purpose this time. I wasn't a wandering ghost or shadow, not some phantom to be exorcised from existence. It was here that I could finish what I started, bring an end to my story.

"Arrogant youths." That old crone's voice penetrated the emptiness.

All of us readied our weapons as he appeared, "You cannot hope to win, boy. I am the Alpha and Omega of this world. I am the power to guide Spira through its darkness. I am the power to end Spira's despair."

I smirked at him, "No, you're just a blind old fool. My Lord, Yu Yevon, I understand now. I understand your purpose for the Age of Sin." After all, I had a millennium's worth of history flowing through my thoughts; I was bound to learn something. "Machina. You know, there's more to them than just the path you see. There's so much more than the Machina War. Look around you and you should understand. It was our advanced cities that cleansed the Moonflow. It was our technology that prevented the decay in Macalania. The Age of Sin saw a great loss for Spirans, which is why repent became tradition. Don't you feel them? Can you not see? Though your heart had been in the right, you've lost sight of your intention for the objective of control. I admit I was too young, too naïve, too distraught to aid you then, My Lord. It took one thousand years of death, of drowning in the Age of Sin to show me the way. You lost sight of your goals in order to achieve the immortality to mold Spira the way you deemed correct. In doing so, you cost so many innocents their lives. There is no other path left, My Lord. For that, I am deeply sorry."

He only set off an anticipated scoff, "Spare me the remarks of ignorance. You had not and will never comprehend what I have to offer this nocuous world. Lost lives are a necessary sacrifice and one worth the price of salvation."

"Even the sacrifice of your own daughter?"

"Yes. To accomplish the greatest of all good, one must not lose poise. Only a true leader is prepared to do all that is necessary, sacrifice as many 'innocents' as required. That is how goals become results."

I nodded, tightening my grip on my blade, "My Lord, I must then inform you, I see your flaws now. Your desire for control led you to this power and, with that power, you sought greater control. While your motives are justified, your direction has poisoned your soul. You forged alliances to which you regret. You acquaint with those you revile. Now that those voices have been silenced, they hear the sorrows of their squandered days. I can feel them."

Closing my eyes, I allowed those memories to permeate my own essence, imbuing me with what they knew. In turn, they were granted the strength that had drained from them all these long years and renewed their hopes that their slaver would meet his end this day. Even the four of them standing behind me grew more resolute, Yuna joining Rikku by activating her Special Dressphere, Floral Fallal. Paine and my better remained their most comfortable selves, warriors together with me against the dark magician blighting our future.

I took a few steps forward, Sin's pyreflies dancing around me, "When Seymour was sent, you moved into the Farplane to reclaim your pawn, didn't you? His lost humanity wasn't enough of a tribute; you needed even more. Sin was fed the extinguished flames of generations that suffered the tolls of your ambitions. I can feel them."

The old one merely whisked the pyreflies away with a wave of his mystically empowered hand, but I continued, "Now, My Lord, they/we want to show you their/our ambition!"

I rushed him, flipping in the air to perform Spin Cut, charged by the will of the pyreflies. Rather than dodge, Yu Yevon only called upon his own pyreflies to take the impact for him. The pyreflies, now radiating with energy, began constructing into a large being. As their new form took shape, we noticed that it was an Aeon, though only of artificial manufacture. Those pyreflies echoed their cruel fate, recounting what had befallen them during their first tenure as their master's servant. It was none other than Lord Zaon, the armoured soldier and husband to Yunalesca. This form that Yu Yevon had rebuilt was that of his Final Aeon, a majestic centurion wielding all sorts of weapons in his many hands. With an axe and spear, he had locked my sword in his grasp. Luckily, Yuna's heavy hitting Great Whirl loosened that grasp in no time.

"Still hiding behind your slaves? They are your last remaining shields, aren't they?" I mused, running around the centurion to target the old crone again.

To that, he only summoned more, bringing forth four more Final Aeons. One of them, a hulking minotaur, had been the Final Aeon that created the scar in the Calm Lands. Another, a griffin with eight wings, had produced the Sin that plunged Kresia Island into the sea.

"I know what they are!" Rikku yelped, not knowing what had occurred while I spoke with Yu Yevon.

"You've been joined with the pyreflies of Zanarkand, the forces within Sin that want to stop their former lord and master." I explained.

"These five are his strongest Final Aeons." Paine said.

"Yes, but we will overcome them." I assured.

"It took everything just to stop Lenne and Sir Jecht." Yuna uttered, backing away from our adversaries.

"No, he's right. We're not alone anymore. We have all of Zanarkand and even the innocents of the Farplane backing us up. And don't forget about our cavalry outside Sin." The blitz ace cajoled.

I ran forward, clashing my sword with Lord Zaon's halberd, "Besides, there's five of them and five of us. I appreciate those odds."

Zaon's other arms tried swatting me with their mace and hammer, respectively, but I backflipped away, pulling out the "The End" Garment Grid I was given and changing to Black Mage. However, given the lack of speed and agility the garment provided, I was only able to cast a single Ultima before Zaon went on an onslaught, bashing me into the ground. By the time I escaped, the Black Mage Dressphere had accumulated too much damage and ceased function, forcing me to change to Samurai. Elsewhere, Yuna's Floral Fallal had analysed the minotaur and her pistils were weakening it with its various debilitating pollens. Vajra had caused tremendous damage to another one, but the griffin blasted Machina Maw with corrosive acid and she had to abandon it.

"Meanie!" She shouted, changing to Gun Mage in order to reengage her assailant.

"These guys aren't so tough after the last battle." My better proclaimed, his Caladbolg slicing off one of Zaon's arms while he passed through the five during Slice & Dice.

SuperNova cleaved a few wings from the griffin while Paine had spherechanged to Trainer to have her pet work on her opponent, a four-faced totem being. As its rigid body rendered it highly immobile, the small animal was easily able to precipitate increasing amounts of damage. Its spellcasting, on the other hand, was being dealt with by Yuna, who had switched over to White Mage to dispel everything the Final Aeon conjured.

Unfortunately for us, none of us figured out the true point of these creations until it was too late. Off to the side, Yu Yevon had collected a strong concentration of aura, channeling it out in the form of Graviton. The radius of the spell encompassed us and I could sense the others buckling against the incredible weight of it. It was obvious, Yu Yevon had forgotten that I had been made immune to his brand of magic since he betrayed me on the night Zanarkand fell. Abandoning Zaon, I stalked to the wizard, sword in hand, but I would never make it. Instead, the fifth Final Aeon, a metallic spider-like creature, overtook me, barring my way to its master with its sharp bladed legs. It jabbed at the ground with its stinger, something more akin to a wasp, but I rolled out of the way. When I was clear of the spider, I found Rikku back in Thief gear, making the most of her speed to counter the effects of Graviton. The others had also found a way to mitigate the ill effects to some degree, but we all knew we'd have to stop the spell if we were to bring the fight back to an even plane.

Rikku took advantage of the griffin's confidence, feigning fatigue and faltering to her knees. The Final Aeon attacked her, diving down just in time to be caught in the neck by her dagger as she hopped onto its back, stabbing the other side of its neck to keep balanced. Steering with the weapons, she had the griffin collide with the spider, leaving the rest of us open to attack Yu Yevon. I gained some ground first, readying my katana for a decapitating blow, but was stopped by Zaon, who bashed its warhammer into me, forcing me to block with the blade, which shattered it. Without my samurai's weapon, I threw some rockets to distract before spherechanging to Berserker. Paine moved in next, changing out of Trainer to Gunner, attempting a Trigger Happy. The four-faced Aeon used Aeraga to warp the trajectory of the shots. Paine went on to deal with it while my better had used Yu Yevon's focus on us to sneak in close and hit the spider with Telekinesis, sending its sharp leg into the wizard and scattering his pyreflies. The temporary loss of his physical manifestation cost him the Graviton, which freed us for a full on assault.

Yuna was back in Floral Fallal, striking the spider with another Great Whirl, though this time, she had aimed each spark for one of the Aeon's many weak joints, eventually punching through them and dropping it to the ground. Yu Yevon reformed by them, trying to cast Flare on her, but I blocked with my claws with a howl of glee, galloping to him at full speed. Again, I would be foiled by Zaon, but in my fury, I managed to chomp off a couple of his other arms. In a fit, he grabbed me with his remaining arms, breaking my back over his knee, which forced me out of that dressphere into Dark Knight. The stiff armour supported me while I advantaged its smooth and sleek surfaces to glide through Zaon's attack, using my jagged blade to cleave into his middle. The attack was effective, but Zaon was persistent. In the struggle, he managed to snatch the Garment Grid from me, crumbling it in its last remaining arm. Of course, that left me in my original state, which sported my best-accustomed weapon.

"Let's call it." The blitz ace shouted out, having shifted back to normal to use Energy Rain on the spider, "One!"

Paine continued from that, changing back to Warrior while falling from a previous attack. As she fell, she pointed her blade downward, stabbing at the center that joined the four-faced totem. With it severed, the four parts could no longer stabilise themselves and pulled themselves apart.

Once it had dissipated, she exclaimed, "Two!"

"Three!" Yuna called over, blowing out the smoke from her guns as the minotaur fell.

"This one makes four!" Rikku cheered, pulling up on her daggers and tearing through the skull of the griffin until it crashed down, sliding to a stop.

The momentum was just the right amount to allow her to glide over to the rest of us. Looking at me with a smile, I turned back to Zaon to say, "Five", and bisected him back into pyreflies.

With that, Yu Yevon was alone again, "You've run out of slaves to shield you from this, My Lord."

"Bah, I need only this, my true power!" He bluffed.

All that resulted was a barrage of wayward spells, the telltale proof of a desperate ploy. Ultimas were carelessly placed, hardly managing to lure us into the stronger Gravijas he cast alongside them. He attempted Graviton again, but knew that would only hinder his evasiveness. However, at the very end, he gave in, sending the spell our way, albeit only as a way to distract us while he unleashed the much more potent Mega Graviton against us. A black circle formed all around us, the whole of Sin trembling from its power. Slowly, the areas closest to the circle began to warp, bending and collapsing in on itself. Graviton made it highly unlikely we could avoid Mega Graviton's effects. So this was it.

"Now you foolish children, now you see how pitiful your resistance is." He cackled.

Yuna spherechanged to White Mage, casting Holy in hopes the orbs of pure light could dispel it, but it would be to no avail. They were all feeling the effects of the strong gravity, which left me to deal with Yu Yevon. I closed my eyes and remembered what I had found… at the beginning.

_Just as Jurama had instructed, I went back there, to our home of Zanarkand. The resurrection had served a few purposes: It created a focus that would lure Sin from its hiding place. It left me the opportunity to slip out and seek Vegnagun while the others marveled at the machina city. However, the primary purpose for my maneuver was to obtain what Jurama had left for me on the day he perished and that was a unique spell. In a losing war like the one we had against Bevelle, any means of victory was worthwhile. Jurama had discovered a spell only accessible to warriors, a spell called Magna. It called forth the whole of his essence, fusing it into a destructive bomb that dwarfed even the strength of NovaBurst. The cost was the warrior's life as his pyreflies would be completely drained of life._

But I was no ordinary warrior and I was not alone. Planting my sword before me, I lifted my arms to call the pyreflies, "Now, it is their moment. They can shed themselves of the taint that is Yu Yevon."

Following that, I circled my hands, sending my left palm out to my right, the pyreflies within me flowing outward, "I accept it, their pain and loathing. Seymour, I relieve him of his anger at a Spira that abominates his existence and the anguish of losing his cherished mother."

Circling my hands in the opposite direction, I thrust my right palm to my left, more pyreflies freeing themselves, "I present you the despair of a man who felt failure in avenging his brother, of hatred at an uncaring society, Areth's rage."

"And lastly, I offer the darkness of myself, of one thousand year in torturous solitude, of lifetimes spent watching the ruination of this world, of generations screaming to be spared." I spat, redirecting the two streams of pyreflies upward with my hands, "This, Lord Yu Yevon, this is the price of blind ambition. This… is the end of my story."

The energy pouring from the pyreflies began drawing in more and Sin itself started to be pulled in. Noise from the outside became more and more evident as Sin's skin thinned and fell into Magna. Finally, with the Celsius back in view and what was left of Sin barely reminiscent of the fearsome feral beast, I dropped my hands and knelt down, letting the giant concentration of energy crash. Though it was meant only as an offensive weapon, I could feel it healing the others, the airship, and myself while it ripped through Yu Yevon. In the aftermath, Yu Yevon's form wavered, the weary pyreflies that made up his existence fizzling from Magna.

"Now Yuna!" I shouted, turning to her.

My better stepped forward, "But you'll…"

"Yuna, now!" I repeated, staring hard into her eyes.

With a heavy heart, she nodded, taking hold of her White Mage staff and getting into position. Unlike the Sending, Yuna's moves were broken, fragmented steps and rough twists causing the aura about the area to falter. Even though the Breaking wasn't meant for me, I could still feel it in my pyreflies. They feared her movements. Taking my eyes to the lord, I saw him twitching. The first of his pyreflies escaped his clutches, soaring for a bit as if Sent until, just a few feet away from the deck, it shattered like glass. Several others followed it, breaking apart after a certain point. Yu Yevon screamed out in horror as more of his pyreflies died, scattering his memory to the wind. At last, there was nothing left, the remainder of his pyreflies exploding above us in a dazzling show of light.

A jolt of pain suddenly surged through me and I was blinded by the strength of it. Before I knew it, I was falling and felt nothing. There was no wind or cold, no emotions or colour. Everything around me blurred into white and I couldn't even place myself in it.

From very far away, I thought I heard the others calling out, but it was far too distorted amidst the blankness of where I was. No, there was no where. I was nothing. I was no one. I couldn't feel anything anymore, but I knew. I knew because there were no more pyreflies, no more sensing, no more awareness. I had no up or down, no here nor there, not even a place in time. I had been a dream of the fayth like the blitzer before me. Without Yu Yevon to pull them from the Farplane, my friends were no longer fayth and without those capabilities, they could no longer forge their dreams into reality. My true self had already accepted death and that was where I was, in the empty space beyond life and death. What kept me conscious, I had no idea, but I was glad it wasn't over just yet.

And I could still imagine. I could imagine my new friends still there, calling out to me. I could imagine my old friends still amongst them as the fayth they were transformed into. I could still pretend Zanarkand stood against the evening sky, its lights coming on as the sun set across the horizon.

"And if I concentrate hard enough, I can just hear the oars crashing upon the waves of our new future." I found myself saying aloud, standing behind them on the deck of the Celsius.

"Shuyin?" Rikku asked, turning her teary-eyed face to me.

"Hey."

"Are you…?" Yuna began her question.

"Not sure what I am now. I'm not alive, but I can will myself into being like an unsent. But it still feels different." I tried to explain.

"You've become a guardian to this world, my love." That loving voice.

"Lenne!" I uttered, moving towards her.

"You now protect it, this wonderful life in the period of tranquility." She told me.

So that it was, my destiny, to have lived a life cut short, to descend into darkness and become a demon, to return to a new life and save this world, and now to rise and be its protectorate. What lay ahead was unknown to me, but for now I say, "The Calm will continue."

**Author's Interlude:** Whew, such a long battle. I had run many a scenario over just how I wanted to have Yu Yevon defeated. I had in mind I didn't want him sent as this entire story is about how he came back from it. From that thought, I developed the Breaking, as it had to be Yuna that finally rid Spira of him and his Sin. However, as I had always wanted to give Shuyin his revenge on the summoner for what he did to him, I kept hitting pitfalls on just what Shuyin could do against such a powerful opponent. I threw his overdrives out the door right away, no way they would do it justice. It wasn't as if Yu Yevon was like Areth from my last story. Yu Yevon had been the mastermind behind it all and was one of the major factors in Shuyin being trapped in his own regrets. From that, I came up with the idea that Yu Yevon deserved to be struck down by his own arrogance, that underestimating of others he kept doing. Therefore, it had to be magic that defeated him and that's when I remembered that I had Jurama visit Areth in my last story. I never could place it into Eternal Love because it was all in Shuyin's perspective. It would be a bit odd to have him present for a heart to heart between those two, but I had wanted Jurama to visit Areth to give him a spell he could use to avenge Kai. Yes, that spell was Magna and that was what Ju meant when he told Shuyin to find it "at the beginning". Of course, I had tried to include it again in Eternal Love when Shuyin found Ju's body, basically having it be on the reverse side of the note Trista and Areth left or another note clutched in his dying hand, but that felt too cluttered for one story. So, after that was taken care of, I had Magna, but it was originally going to bring about a warrior's death. That death was going to come from Shuyin's "undead" sword as, if any of my old fans remember, Shuyin's sword was given to him by Takuma and wasn't actually a totally physical weapon. Since I wanted to beat Yu Yevon using his own arrogance, the only concept that came to mind was all he had done and how he created his Sins. That's where the idea of resurrecting Zanarkand came from, to have the pyreflies of all the people he betrayed when he forced them to die for him come back and tear him a new one. x)

It was actually perfect. If every ill deed Yu Yevon had done was coming back on him, then who better to present it than the one person in the world that had to suffer through it all? So, as Magna takes from the warrior that casts it his essence, then rather than having Shuyin sacrifice his life as the spell intended, I had him sacrifice all those pyreflies he'd gathered together in Sin. He created Zanarkand from the pyreflies of the dead. When Yu Yevon had Sin absorb them, those pyreflies became a part of it, which was easy access. Then, I had Yu Yevon absorb both Seymour and Areth, who were both put to rest last chapter. Finally, and key to the point, Shuyin let go of his own demons, the thousand years of unrest he keeps droning on about. =p Wasn't that exciting?

*crickets* You lot aren't even listening, are you? . You lot just want me to shut it and get on with the Good Ending part, don't you? … Fine, have your smelly Good Ending.

Chapter 48: Rebirth

Lenne

"Now Yuna!" I heard him scream.

The former high summoner was so distraught by what was being asked of her, her voice shaking as she said, "But you'll…"

"Yuna, now!" My love commanded again, his hardened tone bringing tears to my eyes.

Lady Yuna stepped forward, her head bowed as she contemplated what she was to do. This was no Sending. I felt the magic coursing through her and immediately identified it as the horrible enchantment I discovered long ago. She would tap into the core essence of the pyreflies themselves. She would expose the energy stored within, deteriorating the shells that housed them, and that would cause them to rupture. Once those fragile creatures lost that precious spark inside, it would be lost forever. It was such a cruel fate, but they were right. I didn't want it to be true, but they were right. Our Lord, Yu Yevon, had become consumed by his own devices. He no longer cared for the nexus of magic in Spira, the pathway to enlightening the peoples. It had become so twisted in his mind that he wanted to force all those who opposed his will to obey him unquestioningly. And so, this would be his end, such a pathetic end for one who wanted to be righteous.

As the mystical forces took hold, Yu Yevon's pyreflies deserted him, spreading into the open air now that Sin's armour had fallen. The magic corrupted their composition, compromising their delicate stability. Once the first ruptured, it was only a matter of time. In just a few short seconds, more pyreflies vacated the body of our former leader, shattering in a growing display of light. It would have been a beautiful sight had I not known what was really occurring to bring it about. Despite all he had done to me, I felt his pain and anguish. He had not wanted to become the enemy. He had not chosen to force his will unto others, but that was the thread woven by fate, which guided him to this destiny. With a horrified wail, the rest of his form washed away, his exposed memories swept away by the atmosphere like a tide of change.

My heart stung from what I knew to be next. As my eyes fell back upon my love, I saw him falter, the power that Yu Yevon had summoned to maintain Kirin and the others as fayth now gone. Without it, the hybrid fayth our lord had built in the Farplane no longer possessed their restorative talents. My dear Shuyin had been resurrected by them as one of their dreams and now, he was lost to them. Additionally, my love would suffer from the ordeal of fading back into the void because, dissimilar to Yuna's great love, my Shuyin was a true life before becoming a dream of the fayth. When they brought him back from the dead, they rekindled the fires of life within his pyreflies, in essence holding back the wave of death that had drowned them. He fell immediately, his pyreflies flowing from him back into the Farplane. His body would strew itself upon the ground in the same way it had in his original death, but only moments before fading away as the remainder of his pyreflies fled.

"Shuyin!" Paine cried.

"No, come back!" Rikku screamed, rushing over to where my love had fallen.

"So he's gone…" The dream reality's version of my love finally put to voice.

"I guess so." Lady Yuna replied, leaning into him for support.

"He can't be! It's not fair!" The young Al Bhed whined, tears flowing freely from her eyes.

My heart ached for her; I did not like the fate that befell my love either. Rikku's cousin and her love moved in to offer the girl their sympathies, but anyone could tell it wouldn't be enough. Nothing would change the fact that he had been robbed of his second chance at life. My Shuyin had given everything to protect Spira and it took from him more. It wasn't right.

At first, I waited patiently to disappear. It wasn't quite clear as to why I hadn't already, but I waited. My mind wished to reunite with him again in the Farplane; we had been kept apart for entirely too long. However, nothing ever came of it. Instead, I found myself returning to the physical world, pyreflies from what remained of Sin's stolen swell imbuing me with new life. I gazed at my returning hands and felt the coldness of my skin, shocked that I could. My clothes were real and I could even smell the leather of my boots and the straps that held my sleeves in place and decorated my upper arms. Taking a slight glance at my legs, I chanced my first step in over one thousand years to find that they were actually standing on the surface of Akoji's ship. I could hear the heels of my boots as they touched the metal of the deck and found myself jumping for joy. It was so very childish and embarrassing, but all my senses were overwhelming me and I could not think of anything else to do.

My antics finally alerted them to my presence and Rikku would be the first to approach, half of the young girl brokenhearted while the other half welcomed me into their world, "How… how is this…"

Paine would aid her, asking the question in her mind in her stead, "How are you back?"

Nodding to them with tears in my eyes, I responded, "I'm actually not sure of it myself."

"But if you're back, does this mean…" Rikku tried to say between sobs.

Smiling at the poor girl, I hugged her close, "I hope so."

"It's so wonderful to finally make your acquaintance." Lady Yuna greeted, making a small bow.

I nodded to her, as well, "And I you, Lady Yuna."

"This is great and all, but what's going on? I don't mean to sound rude, but I'd like to know where my guests came from before I go and sit down for tea with them." Paine stated in retort.

"Yes, I agree. It is a troubling matter." I replied.

"Who really cares? You're back, hopefully your guy's back. Why keep looking that gift horse in the mouth?" My love's more innocent counterpart suggested.

"It may be a foreboding to future events. That is why we should discover what has brought me back and if it should cause further problems for all of you."

"But, Lady Lenne, how would we go about it? We have been caught off-guard by everything that's happened so far." Lady Yuna enquired.

"Sounds to me like you guys just need the intel." A very familiar and welcome voice echoed from the negative space, "Isn't that right, Lennie?"

"Of course. So, might I take it that this is all your doing, Kirin?"

"We knew we were going to lose our power the minute Yu Yevon's pyreflies started blowing up. So, before all of that power was gone, we grabbed up all your memories and bunched you back together… Both of you." She explained, winking after her last comment.

"You mean like the other fayth did for him?" Lady Yuna asked of her, pulling on her love's arm.

"Who do you think taught us?" Came her reply as she tilted her head to the side.

"Does that mean that it's…" Yuna started to ask, but would be interrupted.

Kirin had a highly one-track mind once she started, "Didn't have enough time, though. I can't tell where he is. We got Lennie back here because all her memories were in the Farplane with us and Sin soaked up all of those."

"What will become of the Farplane now that the pyreflies have been taken from it?" I asked, concern in my voice as I knew how grave that outcome would be.

"Don't worry, Lennie, the pyreflies are all heading home. They were kinda pulled out of there by force and that doesn't work for long. Yu Yevon was really full of himself for pulling that stunt. It's no wonder his new Sin couldn't hold it together."

"But I thought Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal were the ones that…" Paine began to comment.

"Oh, they helped. Sin was losing it the whole time. It was surprising that it lasted as long as it did. What those boys on the ground did weakened Sin so much, the thing was using up all its energy just staying in one piece. Yu Yevon was almost all on his own when you guys were fighting him. Talk about biting off more than you could chew, huh?" Kirin mused, turning away from us, "Would really like to know where the lunkhead turned up, though. I'm too weak to sense him now."

Smiling softly, I said, "I think I do."

I went over to the lift and opened a communications channel. A humourous Al Bhed answered me, though from the name he eagerly called out told me I wasn't who he was expecting. Once he calmed himself, I requested that he land in the ruins of Zanarkand. He was understandably confused as were the rest of them, but he accepted my request and the airship descended on the razed city below. Together with friends old and new, I traveled with them over the rock and rubble. If my suspicions were correct, I'd finally be reunited with him. Even though the Zanarkand of this time had laid in ruin for so long, nothing would let me lose the memory of my home here. I recognised all of it as it once was, every crumbling building that used to stand proudly, every twisted street that used to carry us all. The route I took was the same one my Shuyin had shown me on our first date. I even found myself giggling at how we ran from those paparazzi that day, moving though the hotel and into the alcove. That hotel was still standing, though its lobby was now a dry cavern coated in debris. Still I followed that trail, moving about the furniture that used to be there and stopping to gaze upon the now empty concierge desk. By the time we were outside, Kirin had caught on to what I was doing and we began roaming together, though she was still surprised when I didn't head inside Shuyin's house. After all, the path I had taken was how he had eluded them and gotten me to his home, but I knew he wasn't there. He had always told me there was nothing for him there. No, there was one place he did feel was home and that's where I took them.

"Lennie, you sure about this?" Kirin whined, her essence fading slightly as she was further from the Farplane.

"Not to worry, I'm sure."

"Where are we?" Rikku asked, looking at the grayed structure.

"This is my house. Welcome!" I greeted, opening the door, which promptly collapsed onto the floor.

"I'm sorry for the mess. I haven't cleaned it in ages… literally." I added with a grin.

Kirin rolled her eyes at me as we all entered. The marble stairs inside had petrified additions to them now, but they were still open enough to travel on so I led them to the second floor where my living room used to be. Each step was simply wonderful because I could feel him already. The roof had long since been torn from the foundation and I found myself looking out at the night sky, the stars and moon bathing me in their gentle light.

Taking it all in, I looked at the others who stared straight ahead of them at the flat rock slab that had replaced my couch. There, lying on it just as he had that one night so many years ago, was my love. It was the most amazing night of my life and now I knew it had been his, too. He was drawn to the way we had been then, before all the war and sorrow consumed our lives.

I felt a smile form on my face and followed the moonlight that led to where he rested. He seemed so at peace, the first I'd seen on his complexion in a very long time. Placing my hand on his chest, I felt it rise and fall to his breath. I felt his slow heartbeats, the warmth of his chest lulling me back to that night. I found myself lying down as I had been then, resting my head on my hands that pressed against his chest. Suddenly, I felt his own hands wrapping around me as if on instinct, pulling me closer just like he had before. I nuzzled him, cuddling up against him to better fit his embrace.

"I love you…" He whispered to me under his breath, trying to hide those words like he did last time.

This time, I remained still, playfully pondering if he'd realise that we had an audience. I felt his warm breath on my forehead and felt him stir beneath me. Looking up at his face, I waited for his eyes to open once more.

Hazily, they fluttered open, his pupils adjusting to the light before they focused on me, "Lenne?"

"Hi there." I cooed, looking over at the others.

Likewise, he turned to where I was facing, noticing our blushing company and quickly sat up, holding onto my arms to steady me as he rose. In his confusion, he couldn't form the words he wanted to say.

"Good morning…" I said softly.

"Morning? A little late for that, wouldn't you say?" Kirin returned, putting her hand on her waist.

"Kirin! Is this…" He said in surprise, looking about him.

"You're back!" Rikku yelped, jumping in her excitement.

"How?" He asked, taking his eyes to me then back to Kirin.

"We brought you back, silly head." She told him, walking over to flick his forehead.

"Ow!"

Lady Yuna was overjoyed, "So there was no sacrifice after all!"

"As if there was ever any doubt." The dream of the fayth said confidently, "Yuna, didn't I tell you?"

Without another word, she kissed him and I turned to my love who kissed me. The period of disharmony had passed. The endless fighting and struggling to survive was at an end. We were together again after lifetimes spent searching and we would treasure it… Together forever, even until the end of time.

**Author's Note:** Now, wasn't that something? I'm not sure if I captured the mood of it, but hopefully I have. After all their struggles, they get to go back to a life as it was before. That's nice, isn't it?

That concludes Spira: The Eternal Discord. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I had writing it. The next and final part to this fiction will be the epilogue, which will be the "Perfect Ending" to this X-2 sequel.

Until then, please review! I look forward to seeing what you took from it. ^_^


	50. Meaning

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.

**Author's Note:** And a thousand words, call out through the ages. They'll cradle you…

Oh hello! No more long-winded comments from me. Let's get right to it!

**Spira: The Eternal Discord**

**Epilogue: Meaning**

Besaid, an island paradise in the middle of nowhere and yet it was the beginning of so much. It was perfect for them to strive forward on their journey together, free from bickering cities, wars, and schemes. Its lazy tides crashing on sunburned shores fit well with this new life devoid of delusional grandeur and false gods. They had all encountered such strife, but overcame it each time. They had been forced to push on when all they wanted was to lay down their arms and rest at last, which made this Besaid Island the haven I had always wanted to give them.

Still, much as we try, there was no appeasing some. This time would be no different. Our resident dark shadow just couldn't let go of what he had believed to be his final destiny, to be nothing more than a villain, bested and cast out into the Farplane Abyss.

"It just feels so unnatural." Shuyin said, looking out at the bright yellow sun bathing him in its warm light.

"Has anything in our lives been natural?" His one true love, Lenne, asked of him, wading through his demons to reach his side.

"After everything I've done, I can't possible deserve…"

"Everything you've done?" Paine interrupted, "Please, define for us what 'everything' you're talking about."

"You kno-"

Cutting him off, she proceeded to add, "Because as I recall, it was technically just a shadow of you that did the bad of your 'everything'."

"It might have been a shadow, but-"

Not skipping a beat, Yuna stepped in next to quiet the silly boy, "And even if it wasn't just the shadow's doing, wasn't it you who was so persistent in going about defeating Dark Shuyin?"

"Well, it was my mess. I thought…"

"Shuyin dear, you're fighting a losing battle this time." Lenne winked at him.

"Yea, just relax. Bask in the sun for once." The former dream suggested, taking in a deep breath to show his original the way.

The "Terror of Zanarkand" hung his head in defeat, a smile finally creeping across his features. As he turned to the sun above, his eyes brightened for the first time in centuries and he, too, soaked in the rays. The rest of them skipped and ran through the sand, enjoying themselves in the comforting atmosphere. Paine headed for her old friends, the reunited group talking amongst themselves about their last mission. Even the deathseeker couldn't hold in his happiness, though he tried as some macho challenge between him and the former shadow. Baralai and Gippal were poking fun at one another, each attempting to have Paine side with them, though Leblanc managed to cool them down by threatening to give them the heel. After what Logos and Ormi reported, she had kept a strong arm on the Crimson Squad during their last battle.

Yuna was overjoyed by all the happy faces. She had never dreamed it possible to have attained such a victory without losing anyone in the process. She had done it. She had achieved her goal as she had set out to do ever since the end of her pilgrimage. The glow on her face as she watched her man playing around with the other Aurochs was indescribable joy. For his part, the blitzer stayed true to himself. He'd grown since those days of the former high summoner's pilgrimage and no longer required anything else in his life apart from her presence. That in mind, he frolicked with his Besaid teammates, oblivious to the ordeal he had overcome. While the rest were letting out a sigh of relief, he knew only that it was a new day and life went on.

Lulu and Wakka looked out at them from their home, the former having just put baby Vidina down for a nap. They watched the commotion their younger friends were making, satisfied by the unlikely turn of events. In what they believed to be the Spiral of Death, this planet's only offer, arose an ending that had presented them with life.

Back on the beach, Shuyin and Lenne were witnessing a gathering by the Celsius. Shuyin didn't know what to make of it, but as his love winked at him and turned to the scene, he was about to.

_Doushite koko made_

_Jibun bakkari mamotte tandaro_

_Hito no itami mo wakarazu kichattane_

She sang out, voicing the hearts of Spirans past and present. She asked the questions they dared not, but had always wanted an answer for.

_Nanika dekiru koto atta darou ni_

_Honto no watashi wa mou sukoshi yasashii_

She asked, remembering all the times she felt she could've been more. The potential within her had never come to light, but it was there and wanted to come out.

_Sunao ni narenai jibun ga modokashii_

_Nani ga dekiru no? Watashi ni wa? _

She didn't know what the future held, but maybe there was more in store. Her journeys were not over yet.

_I want to know_

_The meaning of peace & love_

It was such a foreign concept in a Spira so plagued by malevolence. Together they rose above it and were given the opportunity to find a new path.

_I want to know_

_The meaning of your loveliness_

_I want to know_

_The meaning of peace & love_

_I want to know_

_The meaning of your loveliness_

Shuyin marveled at them, looking around at all the friends that surrounded him now. War had destroyed the life he knew and he thought that was how it would always be. Now, in a Spira without Sin, there really was hope and a bright future ahead.

_Sukoshi demo chotto demo_

_Sukutte ageru koto wo_

_Chippoke na watashi demo_

_Kangaete mitai kara_

_Hanashite ne kikasete ne_

_Anata no tooi tooi me no_

_Oku ni aru yasashisa wo_

_Shiawase wo samishisa wo _

The others had their stories, laughed about all their follies, and boasted about their heroic rescues, but the warrior had remained sentinel, her heart sealed ever since that day that seemed a lifetime ago. Those old wounds had healed and those that left her had returned.

… _kanashisa wo_

Even in her sadness, she knew she was not alone. None of them were. They were a family now and she'd never forget it.

_Soba ni ireba yokatta jibun ga_

_Soba ni iru dake_

_Sore dake demo_

_Honno sukoshi chotto demo_

_Nanika no yaku ni tateru nara_

_Sofa de asa wo mukaetemo ii_

_Soto de uzukumatte itemo ii_

_Moufu ichimai dake demo ii_

_I want to know_

_The meaning of peace & love_

_I want to know_

_The meaning of your loveliness_

_I want to know_

_The meaning of peace & love_

_I want to know_

_The meaning of your loveliness_

This was everything she had wanted. She didn't need to be recognized or honoured for what she had accomplished. All she needed was someone there with her, someone for just a bit, just a while to be near, to hold her hand. Now, he would not fade away. Now, he could stay with her, not just for a while, not just for the day, but forever this way. They could relax on a sofa if they wanted or sit on the sands, idling their time away just watching the waves crash into the shore.

_Imamade wa kono hoshi ga_

_Watashi wo tsutsunde kureteta_

_Mawatteta ugoiteta_

_Jiyuu ni nattaru ki ga shita_

_Iki nante dekiru koto_

_Atarimae ni omotteta_

_Sukoshi demo hanashitai_

_Tokidoki wa daiji na koto_

_Sukoshi demo chotto demo_

_Sukutte ageru koto wo_

_Chippoke na watashi demo_

_Kangaete mitai kara_

_Hanashite ne kikasete ne_

_Anata no tooi tooi me no_

_Oku ni aru yasashisa wo_

_Shiawase wo samishisa wo kanashisa wo_

The past to the present and unto the future, how strange was this dream? Could it be real? This world that spurned them, stole from them their very lives, yet it had always held them, hadn't it? It spun, it moved, it let them choose their destiny on their own terms. Even if the road they traveled had taken them so far, they could take a breath. This was the natural way of things even if it never seemed so.

There was time now, time to rest and time to talk about the way things were, all these little things that had been pushed to the side when the big ones interfered. They could tell each other now what they wanted. They could ask each other what they wanted.

"_I want to know..."_

_"The meaning of peace & love…"_

All of them gazed out at the horizon, a bright future soaring high in the distance. What new adventures did it bring? Where would they go from here?

"Someday, somewhere in the sky…" Yuna whispered out toward the water, "May we meet again."

**~The End~**

**Author's Note:** Aw, you'll see them again very soon as this story takes place before Last Mission. xD Yes, the whole of this fiction, despite its length and how long it took me to write it, happens over the course of two months, one month before Last Mission.

The epilogue intentionally leaves out the narrator's identity, though I have one person in mind to fit into the role. The song is "The Meaning of Peace and Love" sung as a duet by the J-Pop sensation, Koda Kumi, and Korean pop star, BoA. It's one of my longtime favourites and fits well with how this story ended, doesn't it? =3

So it's been… wow, exactly seven *giggle VII ^0^* years in the making, but Spira: The Eternal Discord is finally resolved. I wanted to mention one last thing: That line I have Yuna saying is from a music video of her character song sung to the background of Yuna's Ballad. It is open to interpretation what it means.

Though it was only a joke what I said above, for those who know me from the forum, I'm sure you know what else that entails. xD *cough* Exigo *cough* Poor Yuna never gets to be at peace, does she?

What's next for me, you ask? Well, not that you would, but I'm asking it for you so there! I actually have in mind another sequel to follow that RP, as I have mentioned, but I don't think I'll be staying in the world of Final Fantasy X any longer. After close to a decade, I think it's about time I moved on. I think I want to get that one story going, the idea I had to continue the story of Strawberry Panic. It's a break from all these serious dramas and impending days of judgement. It also allows me to branch into a more domestic atmosphere, less ultimate evil covering the world in darkness and more the world will end if she doesn't like these chocolates I made. =p There are at least three more ideas swimming about inside my mind, but again, global destruction and impending doom, so I think I should save those until later. x)

I hope you enjoyed this ending! Please leave lots of comments and I'll set aside these boxes of tissues for those of you who need them. Until next time! *poof gone*

**Afterword:** You lot can completely ignore the following, but as this is the last chapter of the story, I have such a compulsion to get all these ideas out my head. xD

* * *

There were many reasons I wanted Yu Yevon's latest scheme to include pulling in the core of Spira. The one portrayed in this story was that Yu Yevon wanted to rebuild Spira under his design. Another will set the foundation for future events. There was one to set the stage for last chapter's battle. However, there were more reasons. The one relevant to this rant I'm on actually started with my last story. When Shuyin became an unsent and went about destroying the world, he eventually made the move to draw more power and cast his influence on the Farplane. This move succeeded and Shuyin was capable of manipulating everything, controlling the Aeons, restarting the age old war on Spira, and most impressive of all, forcing his will on the core of the planet itself to have it reshape and reform to aid in its own destruction. Yu Yevon was witness to this and, what with his own goal for control having been foiled, this was inspiration he'd been waiting for. The shortcoming of Yu Yevon's Yevon faith was that it required absolute faith in a transparent lie. Once generations began to see how its teachings failed in practice, especially integral pawns like the fayth, Yevon fell apart. That wouldn't happen with Shuyin's move, but he lacked ambition in Yu Yevon's mind. However, he underestimated again. While he had great ambition to control, he had no understanding of the cost. In the last story, while Shuyin succeeded in taking control, he nearly lost himself to them when he tried to take them all with force. A few circumstances pushed him far enough to maintain his own consciousness while wearing himself thin snaring them all, the most relevant here being his history. For one thousand years, he'd been seeing nothing but the suffering Spira's populace, soaking it all up and driving him insane. From a shallow viewpoint, his insanity looks to show he was weak. However, he was driven insane because he couldn't cope with just how powerless people were in choosing their own fate. Despite his fanatical endgame, his motivations were compatible to anyone else of that time and he was able to unite them to himself. This plays into future events, as well. x) Yu Yevon had spent years estranged from his people, being repulsed by the technology they coveted. He had to force himself on them, pulling them into his new Sin with his gravity magic, but that only brought back the same old issue. If they didn't want to help him, Yu Yevon would have to keep hold of them himself. One thousand years of the dead his Sin murdered in the Farplane and all of the lost souls in Zanarkand that sacrificed themselves to his lies and all of them now a part of this new Sin, that's not what he wants. Adding further to that, the very core of his new Sin was another powerful being that rejected him. Throughout the course of the final battle, he was losing his influence on them and, worse yet, they may have ended up influencing him instead. Why would Yu Yevon, of his own volition, want the people that defeated him before back inside where they could have the chance to beat him again? With Vegnagun destroyed, the Celsius had not the engines to maintain its shields. Once they failed, he could have had Sin tear it apart just as it did with the other machina in the sky or it could have used Exa Graviton again.

This "Living Farplane" is also, itself, a foreshadowing of future events, but I would just like to delve into its relation to Shuyin as I just did for Yu Yevon. That line of his where he speaks in both perspectives is meant to illustrate that relationship. Akin to Yu Yevon being the antagonist of the Farplane, having been responsible for taking many of the lives that dwell within it, Shuyin is their epitome. As he watched the many that died during the Age of Sin, he became linked to them through his own death and, consequently, acted as their avatar. Accordingly, Shuyin's final actions were not completely his own, but he shared in the objective of Spira's people. This is also why I had the fayth take him as their summoner, not that he could ever be their summoner, but that all of them were united and, as the Farplane's consciousness grew, that unity became stronger. *This contrasts my portrayal of the Spira of the past. Unity, The Illusion from my last story anyone? ^.~* This is also why Larea's Magus Sisters ended up being the final Aeon to fall and the means by which Shuyin was able to defeat Lenne. It also motivated Anima's late and short appearance as she would only be unified with the others onceSeymourwas put to rest, which wasn't very long ago. Larea would have the most to draw on, Fayth following, and correspondingly,Seymour's mother would have the least. The same contrast is then drawn with Yu Yevon having control of Sin, Lenne, and her Aeons, then losing each one in succession until all he had left were those closest to his thrall, the Final Aeons he corrupted as a parasite. Once they fell, his defeat drew closer as he continued to claw at the power that was leaving his side.

I also said that I had wanted Shuyin to have his revenge on Yu Yevon this story, but really, that all started when I read somewhere about the stray pyrefly before Yuna sent the Yu Yevon parasite in X. The prevailing theory was that that one pyrefly showed Yu Yevon escaped being sent, which meant he could always return one day. Of course, back then I had always thought it was representative of his being sent, as he lost himself when he became a parasite so it stood to reason the only thing that remained of Yu Yevon himself was that one pyrefly and the rest was a mindless parasite. However, another theory popped in my head after considering this other theory and I thought about what was discussed back in Chapter 45, how the parts of Shuyin that did end up in the Farplane became Chappu. I thought about how, parasite or not, they were still Yu Yevon's pyreflies. If they were sent, they'd lose themselves to the Farplane and be reconstituted in the future, but if Yu Yevon's consciousness could escape, that could be enough to recollect those pyreflies. I wagered the stray pyrefly was Yu Yevon's salvation and it then moved into the Farplane, rebuilt himself as an unsent, then during Shuyin's rampage, he drew on it and ended up needing more power to control the pyreflies. He sought Shuyin's friends to become fayth in order to "save Shuyin and Lenne". Of course, he only wanted Lenne, but he knew they'd never agree to it unless they could bring back both. With Lenne as Sin's core, her own siren's voice being capable of manipulation, Yu Yevon thought he had what he needed.

Now, the following comment would have had a bigger impact had I been able to present it several years back when author akksgurl was still about. =x Lenne's words to Shuyin are from the Evanescence song, My Last Breath. Akksgurl and I had had a writing challenge of sorts going whereby we'd try to incorporate lines from one of their songs into the story. =p I had My Tourniquet and My Immortal back in Eternal Love.

Of course, there's more. After all, there was that one sphere that accounted one of Lenne's meetings with Yu Yevon, which only explains in part why Lenne was so important to him, another detail that featured in my last story. There'sKirin's part and, of course, that discussion they had about how each of the current cast of characters is related in some way to my cast of Eternal Love characters. This idea, by the way, also places in future events. xD On that note, there's also just what "future events" I'm referring to. *Yes, it's to do with Exigo. =p haboo and Rinnie, you get a cookie. Just one. Now fight each other for it! kukuku*

Honestly, it's due to all these commentaries that can be drawn from Spira that drew me to it so many years ago. In my opinion, no other Final Fantasy has come close. Of course, the events in the game itself don't illustrate it so vividly, which I believe to be the reason why many fans still consider VII or VIII to be better, but I think there's not much to consider about VII unless you draw from its now established link to X and even less so for VIII.


End file.
